Chromitite layers indicate the existence of large, long-lived, and entirely molten magma chambers

Abstract

The classical paradigm of the ‘big magma tank’ chambers in which the melt differentiates, is replenished, and occasionally feeds the overlying volcanos has recently been challenged on various grounds. An alternative school of thought is that such large, long-lived and largely molten magma chambers are transient to non-existent in Earth’s history. Our study of stratiform chromitites in the Bushveld Complex—the largest magmatic body in the Earth’s continental crust—tells, however, a different story. Several chromitites in this complex occur as layers up to 2 m in thickness and more than 400 kms in lateral extent, implying that chromitite-forming events were chamber-wide phenomena. Field relations and microtextural data, specifically the relationship of 3D coordination number, porosity and grain size, indicate that the chromitites grew as a 3D framework of touching chromite grains directly at the chamber floor from a basaltic melt saturated in chromite only. Mass-balance estimates imply that a few km thick column of this melt is required to form each of these chromitite layers. Therefore, an enormous volume of melt appears to have been involved in the generation of all the Bushveld chromitite layers, with half of this melt being expelled from the magma chamber. We suggest that the existence of thick and laterally extensive chromitite layers in the Bushveld and other layered intrusions supports the classical paradigm of big, albeit rare, ‘magma tank’ chambers.