The late Early Miocene Puesto La Peña alkaline potassic complex, Mendoza, Argentina, is a multiphase intrusion with a large variety of rock types (including pyroxenite, malignite, borolanite, syenite, mafic to felsic dikes, and volcanic necks). This study focuses on the mineralogy of the various lithologies and the mineral chemical data in order to define a petrogenetic model that explains the fractionating phases of the complex. Geothermobarometric data and characteristics of and variations in mineral composition are in agreement with a parental magma that began the crystallization process at around 35–40 km depth with initial temperatures of around 1350 °C. After cooling to about 900 °C, a fractional crystallization process was dominant in a crustal environment at moderate to shallow depths, the ascent of magma being related to crustal extension. Crustal contamination seems to have been limited. In the proposed model, pyroxenite is a cumulate phase of the original intrusion, being comagmatic with the malignite-syenite. The late-stage evolution of the complex involves evolution towards the calcite liquidus field, which explains the presence of clusters of calcite-dolomite crystals and carbonatitic dikelets associated with late ouachititic dikes. The mineral composition reflects an environment of crystallization at moderate to shallow depths, low pressure, low silica, and high temperature, which is consistent with the model for the complex, considered to represent the root zone of an alkaline caldera-style volcano emplaced in an extensional back-arc setting.
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Research Article|
July 01, 2015
Mineral Chemistry and Petrogenesis of the Puesto La PeÑa Undersaturated Alkaline Potassic Complex, Mendoza, Argentina
Eduardo O. Zappettini
;
Eduardo O. Zappettini
§
Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Argentine Geological and Mining Survey, (1322) Buenos Aires, Argentina
§Corresponding author e-mail address: eduardo.zappettini@segemar.gov.ar
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Luisa M. Villar
;
Luisa M. Villar
Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Argentine Geological and Mining Survey, (1322) Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Laura B. Hernandez
Laura B. Hernandez
GEA Institute, University of Concepción, Casilla 160C, (4030000) Concepción, Chile
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The Canadian Mineralogist (2015) 53 (4): 717–756.
Article history
received:
13 Mar 2015
accepted:
01 Aug 2015
first online:
16 Feb 2018
Citation
Eduardo O. Zappettini, Luisa M. Villar, Laura B. Hernandez; Mineral Chemistry and Petrogenesis of the Puesto La PeÑa Undersaturated Alkaline Potassic Complex, Mendoza, Argentina. The Canadian Mineralogist 2015;; 53 (4): 717–756. doi: https://doi.org/10.3749/canmin.1500038
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Index Terms/Descriptors
- alkali syenites
- alkalic composition
- Argentina
- back-arc basins
- basins
- calcite
- carbonates
- chemical composition
- dikes
- dolomite
- feldspathoid rocks
- fractional crystallization
- genesis
- geologic barometry
- geologic thermometry
- igneous rocks
- intrusions
- magmas
- magmatic differentiation
- Mendoza Argentina
- mineral composition
- phonolites
- plutonic rocks
- potassic composition
- pyroxenite
- South America
- syenites
- ultramafics
- volcanic rocks
- ouachitite
- malignite
- borolanite
- Puesto la Pena Complex
Latitude & Longitude
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