Some geochemical constraints upon models for the crystallization of the upper critical zone-main zone interval, northwestern Bushveld complex
- Authors: Eales, Hugh V , Marsh, Julian S , Mitchell, Andrew A , de Klerk, William J , Kruger, Floris J , Field, Matthew
- Date: 1986
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/136044 , vital:37331 , https://doi.org/10.1180/minmag.1986.050.358.03
- Description: Ratios between elements Mg, Fe, Co, Cr, Ni, V, and Sc are consistently different in mafic rocks of the upper critical zone, and those above the Bastard unit. Within the 300 m section above the Merensky Reef, 87Sr/86Sr ratios increase from c.0.7063 to c.0.7087, irrespective of rock type. Decoupling of Mg/(Mg + Fe2+) ratios and the Ca contents of plagioclase, and wide variations in the proportions of anorthosite within the Bastard, Merensky, and Merensky Footwall units, are inconsistent with anorthosite formation by simple fractional crystallization of magma batches of limited volume.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
The mineralogy, petrology, and origin of the Merensky cyclic unit in the western Bushveld Complex
- Authors: Kruger, Floris J , Marsh, Julian S
- Date: 1985
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/136024 , vital:37329 , https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.80.4.958
- Description: The Merensky cyclic unit of the Bushveld Complex represents the first products to crystallize after the influx and mixing of a large new batch of magma in the chamber. Excluding the Merensky pegmatoid, the Merensky cyclic unit grades upward from an orthopyroxenite at the base, through norite to anorthosite at the top of the sequence. It is followed by the very similar Bastard cyclic unit.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1985
Significance of 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the Merensky cyclic unit of the Bushveld Complex
- Authors: Kruger, Floris J , Marsh, Julian S
- Date: 1982
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/133524 , vital:36986 , https://doi.org/10.1038/298053a0
- Description: In a number of mafic layered intrusions, layers with platinum group element (PGE) mineralization coincide with breaks in cumulus mineral composition and isotopic variation trends through the layered sequence1,2. For example, in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, abrupt increases in initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios occur at the UG-2 and Merensky pegmatoid (or ‘reef’) horizons, both of which are exploited for PGEs. We report here the results of a detailed Sr-isotope study across the Merensky unit and its immediate foot- and hangingwall-rocks which, when considered together with new ideas on processes operating in magma chambers3–5, suggest that magma mixing and post-cumulus infiltration of liquids displaced from below were important during crystallization of the Merensky pegmatoid.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1982