HIGH-Mg ARC-ANKARAMITIC DIKES, GREENHILLS COMPLEX, SOUTHLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Minor dikes 8–70 cm thick of ankaramitic composition were emplaced late in the crystallization of the Greenhills Complex, a layered dunite – wehrlite – hornblende gabbronorite intrusion of Permian age in the volcanic arc-derived Brook Street Terrane of southern New Zealand. Mg contents range from 10 to 28 wt% MgO. The interior of a hornblende ankaramite dike at Steep Head contains phenocrysts of olivine Fo 93–82 , in some cases skeletal, and scattered phenocrysts of diopside, set in a groundmass of magnesiohornblende. The chilled margins of this dike consist almost wholly of amphibole (91%) and anorthite, An 99–94 (9%). In other dikes, crystallization of amphibole followed that of olivine, diopside, enstatite, and overlapped with plagioclase. Olivine in these dikes varies in composition from Fo 90 to Fo 72 . Diopside contains oriented blebs of magnesiohornblende and edenite. We believe that the components of these amphibole inclusions were in part introduced and in part derived from the host pyroxene by a process of reactive exsolution. Spinel varies from chromite containing 53 wt% Cr 2 O 3 through compositions at first increasingly Al-rich, and then through chromian magnetite to virtually Cr-free magnetite. Amphiboles range from magnesiohornblende to edenite, pargasite, and tschermakite, with minor late-stage high-Si magnesiohornblende. The aphyric margin of the Steep Head dike contains 17.4 wt% MgO on a volatile-free basis. Some of the melts may have exceeded this MgO content. Dike centers are more Mg-rich than margins, reaching 28.3% in one case, in part an effect of concentration of phenocrysts by flow differentiation, and in part a result of changing composition of the melt. The presence of abundant magmatic amphibole, especially in the most magnesian rocks, indicates a relatively hydrous magma. Various geothermometers suggest extensive low-temperature re-equilibration. Even where the dikes consist of almost monomineralic amphibole, chemically they are arc-ankaramites with CaO/Al 2 O 3 >1, REE contents less than twice primitive mantle, low abundances of high-field-strength elements and of incompatible elements, highly calcic plagioclase, and Cr-rich spinels with Ti, Mg, and Cr contents typical of low-K, high-Mg ankaramitic arc-tholeiitic suites. They have some chemical similarities to komatiites, but have lower Ni/MgO, Cr/MgO, and Ti/V values. The most highly magnesian dike-rocks have olivine in excess of diopside, whereas in dikes with lower Mg contents, the proportion of diopside phenocrysts exceeds that of olivine. Progressive fractionation of these two minerals lowered the bulk CaO/Al 2 O 3 ratio. Below about 10% MgO, CaO/Al 2 O 3 was no longer greater than one, the ankaramitic nature was lost, and evolution continued along an arc-tholeiitic trend. The dike compositions support the hypothesis that the Greenhills Complex is the remnant of an upper-crust magma chamber from which arc-ankaramites, tholeiitic basalts, and more evolved effusive volcanic products in the Brook Street Terrane were erupted. The highly magnesian ankaramitic dikes and their effusive analogues provide another example of an association increasingly recognized in Phanerozoic island-arc systems.