Disequilibrium partial melting and rheomorphic layer formation in the contact aureole of the Basistoppen sill, East Greenland

Abstract

The tholeiitic Basistoppen sill was intruded into the upper part of the Skaergaard complex shortly after the Skaergaard magma had solidified. Heat from the cooling Basistoppen magma caused disequilibrium partial melting in the adjacent Skaergaard ferrogabbros. Olivine, ferrobustamite, and magnetite were selectively melted and removed from the rock as an iron-rich melagabbro magma. Plagioclase acted as a refractory phase during partial melting and was left behind as an anorthositic gabbro restite. Modal and grain-size layering formed rheomorphically in the previously solidified host rocks as a result of partial melting and recrystallization. The rheomorphic layers are distinct from those found elsewhere in the intrusion.

The extreme degree of contact metamorphism adjacent to the Basistoppen sill is a consequence of the intrusion of the sill into host rocks that were already near their melting temperature. It is suggested that the slow reaction rates between plagioclase and magma inhibited the dissolution of plagioclase relative to olivine, pyroxene, and opaque oxides and resulted in disequilibrium partial melting. The presence of anorthositic gabbro blocks within the Middle Zone of the Skaergaard intrusion indicates that disequilibrium partial melting may also occur during the assimilation of gabbroic xenoliths by magmas.