Abstract
The Zargat Na’ am ring complex crops out 90 km NW of Shalatin City in the Southeastern Desert of Egypt. The ring complex forms a prominent ridge standing high above the surrounding mafic-ultramafic hills. It is cut by two sets of joints and faults which strike predominantly NNW-SSE and E-W, and is injected by dikes, porphyritic alkaline syenites, and felsite porphyries. It consists of alkali syenites, alkali quartz syenites, and peralkaline arfvedsonite-bearing granitic and pegmatitic dikes and sills. The complex is characterized locally by extreme enrichments in REEs, wolframite and rare, high field strength metals (HFSM), such as Zr and Nb. The highest concentrations (1.5 wt% Zr, 0.25 wt% Nb, 0.6 wt% Σ REEs) occur in aegirine-albite aplites that formed around arfvedsonite pegmatites. Quartzhosted melt inclusions in arfvedsonite granite and pegmatite provide unequivocal evidence that the peralkaline compositions and rare metal enrichments are primary magmatic features. Glass inclusions in quartz crystals also have high concentrations of incompatible trace elements including Nb (750 ¢ 10−6), Zr (2500 × 10−6) and REEs (1450 × 10−6). The REEs, Nb and Zr compositions of the aegirine-albite aplites plot along the same linear enrichment trends as the melt inclusions, and Y/Ho ratios mostly display unfractionated, near-chondritic values. The chemical and textural features of the aegirine-albite aplites are apparently resultant from rapid crystallization after volatile loss from a residual peralkaline granitic melt similar in composition to the melt inclusions.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.