ORIGEM DOS MEGACRISTAIS DE K-FELDSPATO DO GRANITO DE MONTE DAS GAMELEIRAS, RIO GRANDE DO NORTE/PARAÍBA, BRASIL

Abstract

The Monte das Gameleiras granitic batholith is located at the boundary between Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba States in northeastern Brazil. Two main types of granitic rocks have been identified in this batholith. Dioritic inclusions occur in both of them. The predominating type is an extremely porphyritic syenogranite, which is intruded by a fine-grained monzogranite. K-feldspar megacrysts are found in both porphyritic granite and dioritic inclusions. The megacrysts long axes average around 4 cm, reaching up to 9 or 10 cm. The megacrysts are euhedral, zoned, and, sometimes, they show rapakivi texture. Flow textures and tuiilage are common, but irregularly distributed. The K-feldspar megacrysts contain inclusions of plagioclase, biotite, quartz, hornblende, sphene, and apatite. These inclusions are concentrically arranged and parallel to the megacrysts zones. The included minerals are generally smaller than the same minerals in the groundmass. Microprobe analyses and x-ray diffraction studies show that the megacrysts of both facies are similar in composition, containing around 90% of orthoclase. Taking into account the textural and compositional aspects, it is concluded that the megacrysts of porphyritic granite and dioritic inclusions are phenocrysts and not porphyroblasts.