V33A-4831:
Petrologic significance of silicic magmatism in the Ferrar Large Igneous Province: geochemistry and geochronology of the Butcher Ridge Igneous Complex, Antarctica
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Demian A Nelson, University of California Santa Barbara, Earth Sciences, Santa Barbara, CA, United States, John M Cottle, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States, Melanie Barboni, University of California Los Angeles, Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States and Blair Schoene, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States
Abstract:
Mafic sills and lavas of the c. 183 Ma Ferrar Large Igneous Province are assumed to have originated from the same parental magma source with minor differentiation during long-distance transport, storage, and emplacement. However, a brief field study by Marshak et al. (1981) reported that the Butcher Ridge Igneous Complex (BRIC), a ~6000 km3 glassy hypabyssal intrusion in the Cook Mountains of southern Victoria Land, reputed to be a significant magma distribution center within the Ferrar LIP, contains lithologies and structures consistent with a major episode of magma differentiation. At present, based on available data, it remains unclear whether production of compositionally diverse magmas, ranging from 53 to 73 wt. % SiO2, originated purely via fractional crystallization of a parental Ferrar magma(s) or whether crustal contamination, and/or re-melting of granitoid basement played a significant role in driving differentiation. In addition, the timing and duration of BRIC magmatism with respect to the main phase of Ferrar magmatism is debated. Here we present the results of new isotopic, major- and trace-element geochemical analyses for (n=130) BRIC samples that, when combined with detailed petrologic and thermodynamic modeling, delineate the geochemical diversity within the BRIC, and enable detailed comparisons with new and existing data for the remainder of Ferrar LIP. In addition, new high-resolution U-Pb ID-TIMS geochronology on baddeleyite from both the BRIC and Dolerite sills from the Ferrar LIP indicate magmatism occurred over a relatively short time span (<<100ka) and overlaps with the main phase of Ferrar magma emplacement. These data are combined with ongoing geochemical and thermodynamic modeling to develop a petrogenetic model for the BRIC and establish the origins and petrologic significance of silicic magmatism within the Ferrar LIP and other LIPs globally.
