Petrology and petrogenesis of an intraplate alkaline lamprophyre-phonolite-carbonatite association in the Alpine Dyke Swarm, New Zealand

Abstract

The Alpine Dyke Swarm (ADS), intruding Haast Schist in the Southern Alps, New Zealand, comprises dykes, sills and diatremes of alkaline and ultramafic lamprophyres, phonolites and carbonatites. Intrusion peaked at ∼25 Ma during inception of dextral transtensional displacement on the Alpine Fault plate boundary. In a chamber beneath Haast River, magmas evolved by fractional crystallisation from primitive lamprophyres to phonolites, and then by liquid immiscibility to carbonatite magmas. Carbonatitic magmas coexisted with a highly sodic fluid that metasomatised adjacent quartzofeldspathic schist to aegirine-albite fenites. Carbonatites fractionated from Ca- to Fe-rich and, under late-stage, hydrothermal conditions, to Ba-Sr-REE–rich varieties. Some lamprophyres rose directly from a highly refractory spinel- or possibly garnet-spinel peridotite mantle that had been extensively metasomatised prior to the low-degree partial melting event and Cr-diopside series nodule entrainment. Al-augite series nodules give ages similar to host lamprophyres and are interpreted as deep-seated cognate cumulates. Compared to the broadly coeval basaltic-basanitic magmas of the Dunedin Volcanic Group (DVG) of East Otago, ADS magmas are enriched in volatiles, LILE, and HFSE (including REE). DVG magmas were derived from a less metasomatised mantle source, and, although undergoing extensive fractionation, failed to achieve the extreme alkali enrichment necessary for silicate melt-carbonatite immiscibility.