Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T15:19:37.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Carbonate volcanism in Calatrava, central Spain: a report on the initial findings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

K. Bailey*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
S. Kearns
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
A. P. Velasco
Affiliation:
Calle Buenos Aires n: 92, 28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
*

Abstract

Late Tertiary-Quaternary volcanism around Calatrava, within the Hercynian massif of central Spain, is alkaline mafic-ultramafic, with ∼250 centres, mainly monogenetic cones and vents, with melilitite the most abundant eruptive. Carbonatite may be expected in association with melilitite and a clear example of magmatic carbonate emerged from a brief field reconnaissance. It is a vent filled with a mixed eruption of glassy melilitite lapilli in a carbonate matrix. Levels and profiles of trace elements are inseparable from recognized carbonatite, and totally unlike those in local sedimentary limestone and caliche. C and O isotopes are the same as those reported for carbonatite ashes in other provinces. Carbonate is present as globules in the melilitite glass, and as inclusions within large clinopyroxene and olivine grains, which are largely xenocrystic. Euhedral spinels in melilitite and carbonate matrix are chromite mantled with titano-magnetite, reported previously only from high-temperature kimberlite. Wehrlite fragments indicate direct eruption from the mantle. Phlogopite and chromian spinel are found only as inclusions in the olivine, pointing to a phlogopite-carbonate mantle source region of the type favoured for carbonatite and melilitite melt generation. Calatrava represents the most southerly and westerly expression in mainland Europe of intra-continental carbonatite-melilitite volcanism. Follow-up field visits have shown that carbonate volcanism is extensive and voluminous throughout the province, requiring a long-term research programme.

Type
Letter
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Deceased

References

Ancochea, E. and Nixon, P.H. (1987 Xenoliths in the Iberian peninsula. Pp. 119125 in: Mantle Xenoliths, (Nixon, P.H., editor). John Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Bailey, D.K. (1993) Carbonate magmas. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 150, 637651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.K. and Collier, J.D. (2000) Carbonatite-melilitite association in the Italian collision zone and the Ugandan rifted craton: significant common factors. Mineralogical Magazine, 64, 675—68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.K. and Kearns, S. (2002) High-titanium magnetite in some fine-grained carbonatites and the magmatic implications. Mineralogical Magazine, 66, 379–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, K., Lloyd, F., Kearns, S., Stoppa, F., Eby, N. and Woolley, A. (2005) Melilitite at Fort Portal, Uganda: Another dimension to the carbonate volcanism. Lithos, 85, 1525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell Smith, W. (1956) A review of some problems of African carbonatites. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, cxii, 189220.Google Scholar
Cebria, J.-M. and Lopez-Ruiz, J. (1995) Alkali basalts and leucitites in an extensional intracontinental plate setting: the late Cenozoic Calatrava volcanic province, (central Spain). Lithos, 35, 2745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Church, A.A. (1995) The petrology of the Kerimasi carbonatite volcano and the carbonatites ofOldoinyo Lengai with a review of other occurrences of extrusive carbonatites. PhD thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
IGME (1988) Mapa Geologico de España, 785 (Almagro). Serie 2-Primera edicion: 1:50,000. Instituto Geologico Minero de España, Madrid.Google Scholar
Lloyd, F.E. and Bailey, D.K. (1975) Light element metasomatism of the continental mantle: the evidence and the consequences. Pp. 389416 in: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, vol. 9, (Ahrens, L.H., Dawson, J.B., Duncan, A.R. and Erlank, A.J., editors). Pergamon Press, Oxford and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopez-Ruiz, J., Cebria, J.M., Doblas, M., Oyarzun, R., Hoyos, M. and Martin, C. (1993) Cenozoic intra-plate volcanism related to extensional tectonics at Calatrava, central Iberia. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 150, 915922.Google Scholar
McDonough, W.F. and Sun, S.-s. (1995) The composition of the Earth. Chemical Geology, 120, 223253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, D.R., Chivas, A.R., Chappell, B.W. and McCulloch, M.T. (1988) Geochemical and isotopic systematics in carbonatites and implications for the evolution of ocean-island sources. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 52, 1 — 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, T.R., Bailey, D.K. and Lloyd, F.E. (1996) Extrusive carbonatite from the Quaternary Rockeskyll complex, West Eifel, Germany. The Canadian Mineralogist, 34, 389403.Google Scholar
Riley, T.R., Bailey, D.K., Harmer, R.E., Liebsch, H., Lloyd, F.E. and Palmer, M.R. (1999) Isotopic and geochemical investigation of a carbonatite-syenite-phonolite diatreme, West Eifel (Germany). Mineralogical Magazine, 63, 615631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoppa, F. and Woolley, A.R. (1997) The Italian carbonatites: field occurrence, petrology and regional significance. Mineralogy and Petrology, 59, 4367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolley, A.R. (2003) Igneous silicate rocks associated with carbonatites: their diversity, relative abundances, and implications for carbonatite genesis. Periodico di Mineralogia, 72, (Special Issue: Eurocarb), 917.Google Scholar
Wyllie, P.J. and Lee, W.-J. (1999) Kimberlites, carbonatites, peridotites and silicate-carbonate liquid immiscibility. Pp. 923932 in: Proceedings of the VII International Kimberlite Conference, (Gurney, J.J., Gurney, J.L., Pascoe, M.D. and Richardson, S.H., editors). Red Roof Design cc, Cape Town, South Africa.Google Scholar