MINERALOGY AND PETROLOGY OF THE POLINO MONTICELLITE CALCIOCARBONATITE (CENTRAL ITALY)

Two small diatremes, about 0.25 my old, cut through Liassic limestones about 1 km NNE of the village of Polino (Long. 12 degrees 50'54''E-Lat. 42 degrees 35'34''N; Central Italy). The material filling the larger diatreme is mainly composed of a tuffisite with abundant lapilli showing concentric structure. Both unaltered country-rocks and massive hypabyssal carbonatite occur in the tuffisite as angular clasts and blocks, from a few mm up to more than 1 m in diameter. The Polino rock occurs in a strongly-potassic igneous district (Umbria Latium Ultra-alkaline District) which comprises phonolitic pyroclastic rocks and very rare kamafugitic lavas. Massive carbonatite blocks have an average mode of 53% Sr-Ba-rich calcite, 23% Fe-monticellite, 9% Th-perovskite plus Ti-magnetite, 6% Cr-phlogopite, 6% forsteritic olivine, about 2% Zr-schorlomite and ca. 1% Si-CO-OH apatite. Perovskite, schorlomite, and apatite form cognate phases, whereas olivine and phlogopite, often replaced by monticellite, occur as nodules and as discrete grains with compositions and deformation features typical of mantle xenocrysts found in alkali basalts and ultramafic rocks. High modal content of Ca-carbonate, high Sr, Ba and LREE contents of calcite, the presence of rare minerals peculiar to carbonatitic rocks and an essential amount of monticellite indicate classification of the Polino rock as a monticellite calciocarbonatite. The Polino rock represents a carbonatitic melt strongly contaminated by mantle-crystal debris. It displays unusual geochemical features having trace elements closer to those of the regional-associated kamafugitic rocks rather than to those of common carbonatites.