Variações composicionais de olivinas do complexo alcalino-carbonatítico de Salitre, MG

Abstract

Compositional variation of olivines from Salitre alkaline-carbonatite complex, MG. The Salitre alkalinecarbonatite-phoscorite complex belongs to the Alto Paranaíba Igneous Province and consists of three separate bodies. Salitre I is a central, kidney-shaped body composed dominantly of bebedourites, with swarms of ring dykes of carbonatites and phoscorites; Salitre II and III are bebedourite-dominated smaller intrusions, respectively to the north and to the south of Salitre I. Olivine occurs in bebedourites, phoscorites and carbonatites, with forsterite content ranging from 83 to 98 mol. %. The least evolved rocks (bebedourites) show lower forsterite content than the more evolved members (phoscorites and carbonatittes), and olivine from carbonatites have the highest forsterite content. The compositional range of forsterite content observed in bebedourites is related to crystal fractionation. In phoscorites, forsterite content increases with decreasing whole-rock MgO, and in carbonatites it decreases, with the decreasing whole-rock MgO. Variations in
CaO and MnO may occur in Salitre olivines. The controls of their distribution are unclear and may suggest local variations in the concentration of these elements in the magma, rather than a crystallographic control of olivine. NiO contents show differences between olivines from bebedourites, and olivines from phoscorites and carbonatites. This discrepancy may be related to the removal of Ni from the system by early fractionation of Ni-rich olivine from a silicate parental magma or, alternatively, by Ni removal in an immiscible sulfide liquid.