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Early basic magmatism in the evolution of Archaean high-grade gneiss terrains: an example from the Lewisian of NW Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

H. R. Rollinson*
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Geology, Faculty of Sciences, College of St. Paul and St. Mary, The Park, Cheltenham GL50 2RH

Abstract

Amphibolite blocks from an Archaean (2.9 Ga) trondhjemite-agmatite complex in the Lewisian at Gruinard Bay have a varied trace element and REE content. Whilst some of the variability is attributable to element mobility during high-grade metamorphism and subsequent trondhjemite magmatism, it is for the main part considered to be a primary feature of the amphibolites. The observed trace element and REE chemistry is best explained in terms of source region heterogeneity and suggests a melting regime comparable with that beneath certain types of mid-ocean ridge. There are geochemical similarities between the amphibolites and the Lewisian layered gabbro-ultramafic complexes, and the two may represent the derivative liquid and associated cumulates respectively from a common parent magma. Thus there is a parallel between the processes which generated some Archaean amphibolites and layered gabbro complexes and those operating beneath modern ocean ridges. Hornblendite and amphibolite pods enclosed within tonalitic gneiss, also found as blocks in the agmatite complex, are geochemically distinct from the main group of amphibolites and are probably of calc-alkaline parentage.

Type
Petrology
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1987

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