Residual-liquid origin for a monzonitic intrusion in a mid-Proterozoic anorthosite complex: The Sybille intrusion, Laramie anorthosite complex, Wyoming

The Sybille intrusion (≈100 km2) is one of three large monzonitic intrusions in the 1.43 Ga Laramie anorthosite complex of southeastern Wyoming. The petrographic, geochemical, isotopic, and geophysical characteristics of Sybille monzonitic rocks are consistent with an origin by extensive crystallization of liquids residual to nearby anorthositic cumulates (ferrodiorites) and contamination by Archean wall rocks. The exposed part of the intrusion is composed mainly of coarse-grained monzosyenites with abundant alkali feldspar phenocrysts. The monzosyenites preserve mineralogical evidence for high crystallization temperatures (>1000°C), mid-crustal emplacement pressures (≈3 kbar), relatively reduced crystallization conditions (2 log units below the fayalite + magnetite + quartz [FMQ] oxygen buffer), and they crystallized in the presence of a CO2-rich fluid phase (Fuhrman et al. 1988; Frost and Touret, 1989). The eastern monzosyenites, those adjacent to contemporaneous anorthosite, are distinguished by an anhydrous mineral assemblage (Fo16-Fo8 olivine, high-Ca pyroxene) lacking modal quartz, silica contents of 60 wt%, and smaller Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 1.2 to 1.3). Abundant xenoliths of Archean wall rocks and anorthosite from the adjacent intrusions in all monzosyenites attest to a sloping emplacement mechanism near the roof of the chamber. We propose that the monzosyenites represent a relatively thin, 0.5-1.0-km-thick, roof to a magma chamber dominated by dense ferrodioritic cumulates at depth. Extensive, open-system fractionation of a ferrodioritic parent magma, residual after crystallization of anorthosite, produced Fe-enriched monzodioritic and/or monzonitic magma in the upper part of the chamber and complementary Fe- and Ti-rich cumulates in the lower levels. We have corroborated the production of monzonitic liquids from crystallization of ferrodiorite through a series of reconnaissance equilibrium-crystallization experiments. The presence of dense ferrodioritic cumulates at depth is consistent with the prominent positive gravity anomaly associated with the Sybille intrusion (Hodge et al. 1973). In the upper parts of the chamber, the fractionated monzodioritic and/or monzonitic magmas eventually became saturated in alkali feldspar. Owing to density contrasts, the alkali feldspar phenocrysts floated to the roof of the chamber, thus producing the exposed porphyritic monzosyenites. In addition, the roof of the chamber was the site of significant melting of Archean gneiss and, locally, metapelite. The Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of the monzosyenites, with Sr isotopic ratios becoming increasingly radiogenic from east (ISr = 0.7059 and initial εNd = -2.5) to west (ISr = 0.7092 and initial εNd = -2.6), are consistent with a 5% to 15% addition of Archean orthogneiss to a ferrodioritic parent magma that had isotopic characteristics similar to adjacent anorthositic rocks. The stratigraphic and compositional similarity of the Sybille monzosyenites to mangerites in the Bjerkreim-Sokndal intrusion of the Rogaland anorthosite complex, southern Norway, indicates that similar open-system magmatic processes are capable of having produced high-temperature, K-rich monzonitic rocks in other Proterozoic anorthosite complexes.SCOPUS: ar.j