Mineral chemistry and crystallization conditions of the Late Cretaceous Mamba pluton from the eastern Gangdese, Southern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

The Late Cretaceous Mamba granodiorite belongs to a part of the Mesozoic Gangdese continental magmatic belt. No quantitative mineralogical study has been made hitherto, and hence the depth at which it formed is poorly constrained. Here we present mineralogical data for the Mamba pluton, including host rocks and their mafic microgranular enclaves (MMEs), to provide insights into their overall crystallization conditions and information about magma mixing. All amphiboles in the Mamba pluton are calcic, with B(Ca+Na)>1.5, and Si=6.81–7.42 apfu for the host rocks and Si=6.77–7.35 apfu for the MMEs. The paramount cation substitutions in amphibole include edenite type and tschermakite type. Biotites both in the host rocks and the MMEs collectively have high MgO (13.19 wt.%–13.03 wt.%) contents, but define a narrow range of Al apfu (atoms per formula unit) variations (2.44–2.57). The oxygen fugacity estimates are based on the biotite compositions cluster around the NNO buffer. The calculated pressure ranges from 1.2 to 2.1 kbar according to the aluminum-in-hornblende barometer. The computed pressure varies from 0.9 to 1.3 kbar based on the aluminum-in-biotite barometer which corresponds to an average depth of ca. 3.9 km. Besides, the estimates of crystallization pressures vary from 0.8 to 1.4 kbar based on the amphibole barometer proposed by Ridolfi et al. (2010), which can be equivalent to the depths ranging from 3.1 to 5.2 km. The MMEs have plagioclase oscillatory zonings and quartz aggregates, probably indicating the presence of magma mixing. Besides, core-to-rim element variations (Rb, Sr, Ba, and P) for the K-feldspar megacrysts serve as robust evidence to support magma mixing and crystal fractionation. This indicates the significance of the magma mixing that contributes to the formation of K-feldspar megacryst zonings in the Mamba pluton.