Geology of the Binneringie Dyke, Western Australia

Abstract

The geology of the Binneringie Dyke, one of the largest true dyke occurrences in the world — it extends for something like 200 miles (320 km.) from east to west, and has a maximum width at Cowan Hill of two miles (3.2 km.) — is described. The dyke is characterised by strongly chilled margins, but only meagre contact effects on the country rocks. The marginal zone is enriched in magnesium and calcium, due to an overprecipitation of early formed ferromagnesians. The marginal rocks are glomeroporphyritic and non-porphyritic bronzite, olivine-bronzite and olivine-bronzite-quartz gabbros, the bronzite having complex exsolution features reflecting inversion from magnesian pigeonite: the rocks towards the centre of the dyke have a progressively more ferroan character, augite-pigeonite gabbros taking the place of bronzite gabbros (the ferroan pigeonite being univerted). There are minor intermediate and acid phases throughout the length of the dyke: these take the form of irregular granogabbro segregation patches, in which there is an excessive development of residual “red rock”, of granophyric and devitrified acid glass composition. They also take the form of pegmatoid clots, associated with much epidote, amphibole, chlorite, sphene and prehnite. Much of the intermediate and acid material is, however, in the form of sharply bounded dykes and dykelets, within the gabbro: these bodies are chilled against the gabbro, never project through the chilled margin of the main dyke into the country rock and appear to represent infillings by late magmatic phases of shrinkage cracks in the gabbro. Another suite of internal dykes and dykelets has a basaltic character: dykes of basaltic dolerite of volcanic aspect are represented and these reveal idiomorphic olivine phenocrysts, trachytic textures, quartz palimpsests of chalcedony filled vesicles, and devitrified tachylite glass base material.