RARE-EARTH AND OTHER TRACE-ELEMENT CONTENTS AND ORIGIN OF MINETTES (MICA-LAMPROPHYRES)

Instrumental neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence analyses of minettes from New Brunswick, Canada, indicate that these rocks are strongly enriched in REE, especially the LREE, and other incompatible elements as well as Cr and Co. The geochemistry of minettes precludes their formation by anatexis or assimilation of crustal rocks, contamination of mantle-derived basalts by non-crystalline residua of granite crystallization, or any process involving fractional crystallization of feldspar. Their peculiar geochemical characteristics must be a direct function of their origin in the mantle. Ultrapotassic rocks, kimberlites, and, to a lesser extent, carbonatites are strikingly similar to minettes in their rare earth and other trace element contents, suggesting genetic links among these rock types. It is difficult to explain the temporal and spatial constancy of this similarity by post-anatectic late enrichment of diversely produced magmas by volatile transport. We tentatively propose that the process best able to account for their unique geochemistry is limited partial melting of the subcontinental mantle following and dependent on the metasomatic introduction of K, Ti, Fe, REE, halogens, P, and other elements as well as H2O and/or CO2. If the enriched mantle is H2O-rich, minette magma is produced; if it is CO2-rich or has an intermediate CO2 H2O ratio, carbonatitic-kimberlitic and/or ultrapotassic magmas result. © 1979.