Geochemical characteristics and origin of the Jacupiranga carbonatites, Brazil

Abstract

New major-, trace-element and Sr, Nd and Pb isotope data are presented for carbonatites and pyroxenites from the 130-Ma-old Jacupiranga complex in southern Brazil. Measured 87Sr 86Sr ranges from 0.7047 to 0.7055, 143Nd 144Nd from 0.51251 to 0.51264 and 206Pb 204Pb from 17.0 to 18.2. Most samples have high measured Th U (5–17), and high 208Pb 204Pb ratios (37.9–40.2) relative to 206Pb 204Pb , with time-integrated Th U > 4 . The pyroxenites have higher initial 206Pb 204Pb (17.63–17.67) and lower initial 87Sr 86Sr (∼ 07047) than the carbonatites (17.05–17.47 and 0.7049–0.7054, respectively). There is a broad negative PbSr isotope array between the carbonatites and the pyroxenites which precludes simple binary mixing, because of their very different Sr/Pb ratios. The isotope differences also appear to preclude models in which the carbonatites segregated by liquid immiscibility from magmas similar to those from which the pyroxenites crystallised, and models in which the isotope arrays are the product of crustal contamination processes. Rather, the initial Sr, Nd and Pb isotope ratios in the Jacupiranga complex, and the negative correlation of Pb and Sr isotope are similar to those in the Paraná high-Ti basalts, and the oceanic basalts of the Walvis Ridge and Tristan da Cunha. Thus, the initial isotope ratios of the Jacupiranga rocks are considered to have been inherited from the mantle source regions associated with incipient magmatism of the Tristan da Cunha hotspot and the opening of the South Atlantic. Finally, the observed variations are used to evaluate suggestions that certain element ratios in upper-mantle rocks, such as high Ca Al and La Yb and low Ti Eu , are features of carbonatite metasomatism. Mantle xenoliths altered by carbonatite metasomatism exhibit elevated Sr contents and low Rb Sr ratios, and most carbonatites have high U Pb , low Rb Sr and Sm Nd . Thus, the intial isotope ratios of the Jacupiranga infiltration and/or metasomatism by carbonatitic melts is one process which may have been responsible for the negative array of U Pb and Rb Sr inferred for the source of certain oceanic basalts.