The Range of Spinel Compositions in Terrestrial Mafic and Ultramafic Rocks

Compositional fields for spinels from a wide variety of mafic– a wide range of conditions from mafic and ultramafic ultramafic igneous rock types and tectonic environments have been magmas and, in the case of chromites, are often among determined from a global database of over 26 000 analyses. the first phases to crystallize. They also exhibit a wide These fields are defined using contoured data density plots based range of solid solution, the thermodynamics of which has on the spinel prism, and plots of TiO2 vs ferric iron, for mantle been studied extensively (O’Neill & Wall, 1987; Mattioli xenoliths, ophiolitic rocks, continental layered intrusions, alkalic & Wood, 1988; Wood, 1990; Sack & Ghiorso, 1991; and lamprophyric rocks, tholeiitic basalts, Alaskan ultramafic Poustovetov, 2000). They are relatively refractory and complexes and komatiites. Several trends appear regularly in the resistant to alteration, particularly compared with other various environments: a trend of widely variable Cr/(Cr + Al) high-temperature igneous minerals such as olivine. They at low Fe/(Mg + Fe) (the Cr–Al trend); increasing Fe, occur in a high proportion of terrestrial mafic and ultraFe/(Mg + Fe) and TiO2 at constant Cr/(Cr + Al) mafic rocks, and a very large volume of microprobe data (Fe–Ti trend); a trend found primarily in kimberlites, similar is available on their compositions. to Fe–Ti but at constant Fe/(Mg + Fe); and an unusual Publications on spinels (particularly chromites) have trend of increasing Al found only in layered intrusions. The routinely used compositional fields based on the spinel Cr–Al and Fe–Ti trends are both found to varying degrees in prism to compare populations of analyses. Some of tholeiitic basalts. The Cr–Al trend is prevalent in rocks that these fields have remarkable longevity, particularly those have equilibrated over a range of pressures, whereas the Fe–Ti defined for layered intrusions and Alpine peridotites by trend is dominantly due to low-pressure fractionation. The most Irvine (1967, 1977). Many new data have become availCr-rich chromites found in nature occur in boninites, diamondable in the last 20 years, however, and it has become bearing kimberlites, some komatiites and ophiolitic chromitites. apparent that a new compilation of data is necessary to Exceptionally reduced chromites are found in some komatiites reflect this. The prime purpose of this paper is to analyse and in ophiolitic chromitites. Detrital chromites from the a global database of about 26 000 spinel analyses from Witwatersrand conglomerates are of komatiitic provenance. terrestrial igneous and metamorphosed igneous rocks, and to extract from this database the characteristic compositional fields of spinels from the wide variety of magma types and tectonic environments in which they occur.