Petrogenesis of low-δ18O quartz porphyry dykes, Koegel Fontein complex, South Africa

Abstract

This paper investigates the origin of low-δ18O quartz porphyry dykes associated with the 144–133 Ma Koegel Fontein Igneous Complex, which was intruded during the initial phase of breakup of Africa and South America. The 25-km diameter Rietpoort Granite is the largest and youngest phase of activity, and is roofed by a 10-km diameter pendant of gneiss. Quartz porphyry (QP) dykes, up to 15 m in width, strike NW–SE across the complex. The QP dykes that intruded outside the granite have similar quartz phenocryst δ18O values (average 8.0‰, ± 0.7, n = 33) to the granite (average 8.3 ± 1.0, n = 7). The QP dykes that intruded the roof pendant have quartz phenocrysts with more variable δ18O values (average 1.6‰, ± 2.1, n = 55). In some cases quartz phenocrysts have δ18O values as low as − 2.5‰. The variation in δ18O value within the quartz crystal population of individual dykes is small relative to the overall range, and core and rim material from individual quartz phenocrysts in three samples are identical within error. There is no evidence that quartz phenocryst δ18O values have been affected by fluid–rock interaction. Based on a ∆quartz−magma value of 0.6‰, magma δ18O values must have been as low as − 3.1‰. Samples collected along the length of the two main QP dykes that traverse the roof pendant have quartz phenocryst δ18O values that range from + 1.1 to + 4.6‰, and − 2.3 to + 5.6‰, respectively. These δ18O values correlate negatively (r = − 0.96) with initial 87Sr/86Sr, which can be explained by the event that lowered δ18O values of the source being older than the dykes. We suggest that the QP dykes were fed by magma produced by partial melting of gneiss, which had been variably altered at high temperature by 18O-depleted meteoric water during global glaciation at ~ 550 Ma. The early melts had variable δ18O value but as melt pockets interconnected during melting, the δ18O values approached that of average gneiss. Variable quartz phenocryst δ18O values in the same dyke can be explained by vertical emplacement, at variable rates of ascent along the dyke. The lateral variation in quartz, and hence magma δ18O value at a particular point along a single dyke would depend on the rate of ascent of magma at that point along the dyke, and the ‘age’ of the particular magma batch.