The petrogenesis of the Kangâmiut dyke swarm, W. Greenland

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that the 2.04 Ga Kangâmiut dyke swarm of SW Greenland was injected into an active tectonic environment associated with the formation of the Nagssugtoqidian orogenic belt. Major and trace element modelling of the swarm shows that its chemical evolution was controlled by simple clinopyroxene–plagioclase fractionation. However, such trends — although typical of continental flood basalts and mafic dyke swarms — are at variance with their mineralogy and petrography, which show that locally hornblende is the dominant primary ferromagnesian mineral. Modelling of intradyke fractionation alone shows that hornblende could locally have been an important crystallising phase within several dykes. Normal basaltic fractionation must have occurred before dyke injection at the exposed crustal levels, where the influx of water into the dykes is believed to be responsible for the transition from clinopyroxene–plagioclase (tholeiitic) to hornblende–plagioclase±oxides (calc–alkaline) crystallisation. Overall geochemical trends are dominated by tholeiitic fractionation because (1) hornblende fractionation tended to buffer chemical composition; (2) the presence of water in the surrounding country rocks may have resulted in the advection of heat away from the dyke and consequently resulted in rapid crystallisation, particularly in thin dykes. There is no evidence from trace element data, and particularly Pb isotopic ratios, of any significant assimilation of country rocks occurring during clinopyroxene–plagioclase fractionation, although this does not preclude contamination of the mantle source prior to magma generation. It is likely that the incompatible element enrichment within the dykes resulted from subduction-related mantle metasomatism. The Kangâmiut dyke swarm was both a syn-tectonic and thermal event, which triggered it may be linked to passage of a slab window underneath the metasomatised region, or a mantle plume ascending under a subduction zone.