Pb isotopes during mingling and melting: a precautionary tale from the Miki Fjord macrodike, East Greenland

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pb isotopes during mingling and melting

T2 - a precautionary tale from the Miki Fjord macrodike, East Greenland

AU - Waight, Tod Earle

AU - Lesher, Charles E.

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - Pb isotopic data are presented for hybrid rocks formed by mingling between mantle-derived tholeiitic magma of the Eocene Miki Fjord macrodike (East Greenland) and melt derived from the adjacent Precambrian basement. Bulk mixing and AFC processes between end-members readily identified in the field fail to model the Pb isotope systematics. Selective contamination during diffusional exchange, which can explain the complex Sr and Nd isotope compositions of the hybrid rocks (Blichert-Toft et al., 1992), cannot fully account for the variability of the Pb isotopic data using the identified crustal end-members. The crustal anatectic end-member, although similar in Sr and Nd isotope composition, has a markedly different Pb isotopic composition than its source gneiss. The differences are consistent with preferential incorporation of radiogenic Pb from accessory phases such as metamict zircon or loosely-bound Pb from grain boundaries during disequilibrium melting of the host rock by the mafic magma. The crustal melt involved in magma interactions was therefore heterogeneous with respect to Pb isotopes on a metre-scale. These results illustrate the difficulties inherent in interpreting isotopic variations in contaminated mafic magmas even when the end-members are well constrained by field relations. We show that the Pb isotopic composition of the crustal contaminants and contamination trajectories for the Miki Fjord hybrid magmatic lithologies are markedly different from regional basement gneisses and contaminated lavas of the associated flood basalt province that were contaminated by characteristically unradiogenic Pb and Sr lithologies resembling Lewisian basement not  exposed locally.

AB - Pb isotopic data are presented for hybrid rocks formed by mingling between mantle-derived tholeiitic magma of the Eocene Miki Fjord macrodike (East Greenland) and melt derived from the adjacent Precambrian basement. Bulk mixing and AFC processes between end-members readily identified in the field fail to model the Pb isotope systematics. Selective contamination during diffusional exchange, which can explain the complex Sr and Nd isotope compositions of the hybrid rocks (Blichert-Toft et al., 1992), cannot fully account for the variability of the Pb isotopic data using the identified crustal end-members. The crustal anatectic end-member, although similar in Sr and Nd isotope composition, has a markedly different Pb isotopic composition than its source gneiss. The differences are consistent with preferential incorporation of radiogenic Pb from accessory phases such as metamict zircon or loosely-bound Pb from grain boundaries during disequilibrium melting of the host rock by the mafic magma. The crustal melt involved in magma interactions was therefore heterogeneous with respect to Pb isotopes on a metre-scale. These results illustrate the difficulties inherent in interpreting isotopic variations in contaminated mafic magmas even when the end-members are well constrained by field relations. We show that the Pb isotopic composition of the crustal contaminants and contamination trajectories for the Miki Fjord hybrid magmatic lithologies are markedly different from regional basement gneisses and contaminated lavas of the associated flood basalt province that were contaminated by characteristically unradiogenic Pb and Sr lithologies resembling Lewisian basement not  exposed locally.

U2 - 10.1016/j.lithos.2010.04.012

DO - 10.1016/j.lithos.2010.04.012

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0024-4937

VL - 118

SP - 191

EP - 201

JO - Lithos

JF - Lithos

ER -