Magma mingling in late-Delamerian A-type granites at Mannum, South Australia

Abstract

The Mannum granite forms part of the Padthaway A-type granite suite, which intruded the Adelaide fold belt along with the Black Hill gabbroic complex just after the cessation of the Delamerian Orogeny. Included within the granite are microgranite blocks, inferred to be stoped pieces of a contaminated margin facies, and numerous mafic enclaves. These enclaves display a variety of globular and tear-drop shapes, are fine-grained, lack chilled margins and enclose and react with quartz and feldspar phenocrysts from the granite, suggesting they represent contemporaneous mafic magma that was mingling with the granite magma during intrusion. Modelled temperature-viscosity relationships show that, in order for these enclaves to behave in a plastic manner, the granite magma must have had a temperature in excess of 930 °C after thermal equilibration was achieved. The contemporaneity of mafic magmas resolves any thermal budget problems arising out of the formation of these high-temperature granites, and a considerable mantle flux is implied during their genesis, consistent with gravity data and the presence of the Black Hill gabbros.