Unique zoned olivines from an ultrabasic—Basic massif in the Noril’sk disitrict

Abstract

The specifics of the morphology, internal structure, and composition of olivine, one of the major rock� forming minerals of ultrabasic and basic rocks, contains valuable information on the conditions of its formation and are widely used in petrology [11, 8, 3, 7, 12]. One of its important characteristics is zoning, which is most pronounced in lunar [8] and Martian [2] meteorites. Olivine exhibits both normal and reverse zoning, with the core–rim difference reaching 25 mol % forsterite. However, this phenomenon is uncommon in the ter� restrial intrusive rocks, because subsolidus diffusion usually “smoothes out” the initial compositional het� erogeneities of the mineral. At present, the available data are reduced to scarce olivine grains with zoned distribution of major (Fe and Mg with Fo gradient of 8–10 mol % [1, 4, 5]) and trace elements Ca, Ni, as well as Al, Cr, and P [4, 9]. Therefore, the find of zoned olivines with the core–rim difference more than 20 mol % Fo in the magmatic rocks of the Noril’sk district is a unique phenomenon not only for this region but also for ultrabasite–basite complexes around the world. The Noril’sk district is located in the NW Siberian trap province. It consists of the rocks of the crystalline basement and platform cover represented by the Early Cambrian–Late Permian terrigenous–carbonate rocks and Early Triassic basalts. Numerous ultrabasite– basite hypabyssal massifs in the forms of chonoliths and bodies of irregular shape are localized among the sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the area. Distinctly differentiated intrusions are combined into the pro� ductive Noril’sk complex, which is characterized by an elevated average weighted MgO content (10–12 wt %) relative to tholeiitic basalts predominant in the section (6–7 wt %). Some of them contain superlarge Pt– Cu–Ni deposits (Talnakh, Oktyabr’skoe, Noril’sk�1), whereas others are either weakly mineralized or bar� ren. Their age relations with volcanic rocks were not established exactly, because in most cases the intru� sions are localized in the underlying sedimentary rocks. One of the representatives of this type of magmatic complexes is the massif studied by us in the eastern part of the area, in the Mikchangda River basin. It is located in the Devonian carbonate–terrigenous rocks