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Compositional cyclicity in a pyroxenitic layer from the Main Zone of the Western Bushveld Complex: evidence for repeated magma influx

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Andrew A. Mitchell
Andrew A. Mitchell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Durban-Westville, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South Africa
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Abstract

Lacking the pronounced modal layering of the underlying Critical Zone, the Main Zone of the Bushveld Complex nevertheless displays well-developed cryptic layering, expressed in a series of iron-enrichment trends, each defining a unit of the order of 100 to 200 m thick. At the base of one such unit, 1100 m above the Main Zone — Critical Zone contact, a 10 m thick pyroxenitic layer was intersected in an exploration borehole from the southern sector of the western Bushveld.

Within the pyroxenitic layer, mineral chemistry defines a series of five cycles of upward Mg and Cr enrichment in pyroxenes, and Ca enrichment in plagioclase. The mineral chemistry, supported by textural evidence, suggests the influx of successive surges of magma. Sustained streaming of magma gave rise to adcumulate textures in the central portion of each cycle, with orthocumulate textures at bases and tops of cycles representing waxing and waning stages of magma surges.

Keywords

Bushveld ComplexMain Zonepyroxenitemagma influxcompositional cyclicity
Type
The 1995 Hallimond Lecture
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 60 , Issue 398 , February 1996 , pp. 149 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1996

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