Feldspar Megacrysts as a Source of Information on Crustal Contamination of Basaltic Melt

Abstract

The paper discusses data on the elemental composition and 87Sr/86Sr, and δ18O isotopic ratios of feldspar megacrysts collected from lava flows, tuffs, and cinders of three volcanic fields in the Baikal rift system: Iya–Uda, Vitim, and Khamar-Daban, which are located within the early Precambrian, Riphean, and Paleozoic crustal blocks, respectively. Megacrysts are hosted in trachybasalts in the Iya–Uda and Khamar-Daban fields and in basanites in the Vitim field. Megacrysts belong to the following three compositional groups of minerals: (i) plagioclase in lavas of the Iya–Uda field, (ii) anorthoclase in lava flows, tuffs, and cinders of the Khamar-Daban and Vitim fields, and (iii) sanidine in the Vitim field. Elemental and isotope data suggest that megacrysts crystallized in volcanic chambers at different depth levels: anorthoclase crystallized from the most primitive magma with mantle-derived isotopic signatures at subcrustal depth levels, plagioclases were produced in deep crustal chambers during the interaction between mantle-derived magma and crustal rocks, and sanidine was captured from the upper crustal rocks.