Abstract
Layered basic intrusions can record processes which operated within basic magma chambers. In particular processes such as magma mixing and fractionation can be identified from the chemistry of cumulus minerals. Isotopes have been used to identify contamination in lavas1–6, but they can also be applied to cumulates to infer a continuous record of the interactions of crust and magma within the magma chamber. We report here that olivine compositions, rare earth elements (REE) on mineral separates and Sr isotopes on whole rocks and pyroxenes from unit 9 of the Eastern Layered Series of the Tertiary Rhum intrusion, north-west Scotland, suggest that fresh magma entered the chamber and mixed with fractionated and contaminated magmas at the base of the chamber. With prolonged residence in the chamber the fresh magma became fractionated and contaminated, was then erupted off and replaced by fresh magma which produced the basal peridotites of unit 10.
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Palacz, Z. Isotopic and geochemical evidence for the evolution of a cyclic unit in the Rhum intrusion, north-west Scotland. Nature 307, 618–620 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/307618a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/307618a0
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