The ~1.08 Ga Pikes Peak Batholith is a type example of an anorogenic (A)-type granite and hosts numerous late-stage sodic and potassic plutons, including the peraluminous to peralkaline Mount Rosa Complex (MRC), located ~15 km west of the City of Colorado Springs in Central Colorado. The MRC is composed of Pikes Peak biotite granite, fayalite-bearing quartz syenite, granitic dikes, Mount Rosa Na-Fe amphibole granite, mafic dikes ranging from diabase to diorite, and numerous rare earth (REE) and other high field strength element (HFSE; e.g. Th, Zr, Nb) rich Niobium-Yttrrium-Fluorine (NYF)-type pegmatites. The aim of this study is to trace the magmatic evolution of the Mount Rosa Complex in order to understand the relationship between peraluminous and peralkaline rock units and concomitant HFSE enrichment and mineralization processes. Field work, petrography, SEM-based methods, whole rock geochemistry, and electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) of micas was performed on all rock units to determine their textural, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics. Early peraluminous units such as the Pikes Peak biotite granite and fayalite-bearing quartz syenite contain annite-siderophyllite micas with high Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios, and show relatively minor enrichments in REE and other HFSE compared to primitive mantle. Granitic dikes show a crude radial geometry around the inferred intrusive center, contain Al-rich siderophyllite mica, and are relatively depleted in HFSE. The Mount Rosa Na-Fe amphibole granite is very heterogeneous in outcrop (sill-like bodies, blobs, and dikes), as well as mineralogically and texturally variable, and includes large pegmatitic areas as well as coarse and fine-grained enclaves. End-member annite is enriched in Na, K, and F, and the Mount Rosa granite is enriched in REE and other HFSE compared to primitive mantle and earlier rock units. Mafic dikes contain biotite which is more Mg-rich versus other MRC biotites, and show a strong whole rock geochemical enrichment in REE, Zr and other HFSE. While Type-(I) pegmatites are mineralogically simple with irregular contacts, Type-(II) pegmatites are mineralogically complex and have sharp intrusive contacts. A sample transect across an ~80 cm thick, well-zoned Type-(II) pegmatite shows low F + Cl contents in biotite from the contact zone (0.30 a.p.f.u. Cl + F) with increasing concentration of F + Cl in micas towards the core. Biotite from the wall zone, which is mineralogically similar to the Mount Rosa granite, contains 2.5 a.p.f.u. F + Cl, whereas polylithionite-trilithionite from the core zone, which which is associated with cryolite (Na3AlF6) pods, fluorite, and arfvedsonite psuedomorphs, shows extremely high concentrations of F + Cl (up to 7.0 a.p.f.u.) While early units such as the Pikes Peak granite, fayalite-bearing quartz syenite, and granitic dikes appear to have a similar parental melt to the overall Pikes Peak Batholith, the Mount Rosa granite, with its peralkaline chemistry and strong outcrop, textural and mineralogical heterogeneity may be…
ABSTRACT Gadolinite, REE2FeBe2Si2O10, is a monoclinic orthosilicate member of the gadolinite supergroup of minerals and occurs in beryllium and rare earth element (REE) bearing granites, pegmatites, and some metamorphic rocks. Gadolinite from the White Cloud pegmatite, South Platte Pegmatite district, Colorado, USA, has been investigated and shows unusually variable REE compositions and distinct Be-Si disorder. Crystal structure and chemistry of two petrographically distinct gadolinite samples from this locality have been studied by electron microprobe chemical analysis, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Within these samples, the gadolinite was found to range from gadolinite-(Y) to gadolinite-(Ce). Regions of nearly full occupancy of Fe at the M site, and partial substitution of Si for Be at the Q tetrahedral site, as well as substitution of Be for Si at the T site were observed, with up to 15% vacancy at the Fe site and up to 15% disorder between Be and Si at distinct tetrahedral sites elsewhere. The layered nature of the crystal structure allows for large variation of the radius of the cation at the A site which contains the REE. This study shows that Be may substitute for Si and that Be may be more abundant in geochemical systems than previously assumed.
ABSTRACT Thalénite-(Y), ideally Y 3 Si 3 O 10 F, is a heavy-rare-earth-rich silicate phase occurring in granite pegmatites that may help to illustrate rare-earth element ( REE ) chemistry and behaviour in natural systems. The crystal structure and mineral chemistry of thalénite-(Y) were analysed by electron microprobe analysis, X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy from a new locality in the peralkaline granite of the Golden Horn batholith, Okanogan County, Washington State, USA, in comparison with new analyses from the White Cloud pegmatite in the Pikes Peak batholith, Colorado, USA. The Golden Horn thalénite-(Y) occurs as late-stage sub-millimetre euhedral bladed transparent crystals in small miarolitic cavities in an arfvedsonite-bearing biotite granite. It exhibits growth zoning with distinct heavy-rare-earth element ( HREE ) vs . light-rare-earth element ( LREE ) enriched zones. The White Cloud thalénite-(Y) occurs in two distinct anhedral and botryoidal crystal habits of mostly homogenous composition. In addition, minor secondary thalénite-(Y) is recognized by its distinct Yb-rich composition (up to 0.8 atoms per formula unit (apfu) Yb). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and structure refinement reveals Y-site ordering with preferential HREE occupation of Y2 vs . Y1 and Y3 REE sites. Chondrite normalization shows continuous enrichment of HREE in White Cloud thalénite-(Y), in contrast to Golden Horn thalénite-(Y) with a slight depletion of the heaviest REE (Tm, Yb and Lu). The results suggest a hydrothermal origin of the Golden Horn miarolitic thalénite-(Y), compared to a combination of both primary magmatic followed by hydrothermal processes responsible for the multiple generations over a range of spatial scales in White Cloud thalénite-(Y).
An unusual rare earth element (REE) mineralization occurs at a locality known as the "Rusty Gold" within the anorogenic 1.4 Ga Longs Peak-St. Vrain monzo- to syenogranite Silver Plume-type intrusion near Jamestown, Colorado (U.S.A.). Irregular-shaped centimeter- to decimeter-sized mineralized pods and veins consist of zoned mineral assemblages dominated by fluorbritholite-(Ce) in a gray-colored core up to 10 cm thick, with monazite-(Ce), fluorite, and minor quartz, uraninite, and sulfides. The core zone is surrounded by a black, typically millimeter-thick allanite-(Ce) rim, with minor monazite-(Ce) in the inner part of that rim. Bastnäsite-(Ce), törnebohmite-(Ce), and cerite-(Ce) appear in a thin intermediate zone between core and rim, often just a few hundreds of micrometers wide. Electron microprobe analyses show that the overall REE content increases from rim to core with a disproportionate increase of heavy REE (∑HREE increases 10-fold from 0.2 to 2.1%) compared to light REE (∑LREE increases twofold from 21.3 to 44.3%). The fluorbritholite-(Ce) contains minor U, Th, Fe, Mn, and Sr (total 0.10 apfu), with Al, Mg, Na, K, Ti, Pb, S, and Cl below instrument detection limits. Cerite-(Ce) is a minor constituent of the thin zone between the inner rim and the core. The cerite-(Ce) is Fe-rich with low Ca, and minor Al, Mg, and Mn, whereas törnebohmite-(Ce) is Al-rich and Ca-poor. Monazite-(Ce) and uraninite U-Th-Pb microprobe ages yield 1.420(25) and 1.442(8) Ga, respectively, confirming a co-genetic relationship with the host ca. 1.42(3) Ga Longs Peak-St. Vrain granite. We suggest the origin of the REE mineralization is a F-rich and lanthanide-rich, either late-magmatic hydrothermal fluid or residual melt, derived from the granite. This late-stage liquid, when becoming progressively enriched in REE as it crystallized, could explain the observed concentric mineralogical and geochemical zoning.
ABSTRACT A previously undescribed small lenticular (~5 × 5 × 5 m) pegmatite, located near Wellington Lake in the NW part of the 1.08 Ga ‘A-type’ (anorogenic) ferroan Pikes Peak granite batholith, ~15 km SW of the South Platte pegmatite district in central Colorado, is concentrically zoned around a mostly monomineralic quartz core with interconnected miarolitic cavities. Major constituents of the Wellington Lake pegmatite are quartz, perthitic microcline, albite (variety cleavelandite), hematite, and biotite. Accessory minerals include fluocerite, bastnäsite, columbite, zircon (var. ‘cyrtolite’), thorite, and secondary U phases. Fluorite is conspicuously absent, although it is a common phase in the South Platte district NYF-type pegmatites, which are rich in niobium (Nb), yttrium (Y), fluorine (F), and heavy rare-earth elements (HREE). Notable for the Wellington Lake pegmatite are a small quantity of well-developed tabular crystals of fluocerite that reach up to 4 cm in diameter, with sub-mm epitaxial bastnäsite overgrowths, suggesting formation from F- and CO2-bearing solutions rich in light rare-earth elements (LREE), with decreasing a(F-)/a(CO32-) during the last crystallization phase. An Nd-isotope value of εNd1.08Ga = -1.6 for the fluocerite is within the range of εNd1.08Ga = -0.2 to -2.7 of the host coarse-grained, pink K-series Pikes Peak Granite (PPG), indicating that REE and other pegmatite constituents derived from the parental PPG magma. A calculation of total pegmatite composition based on whole-rock chemistry and volume estimates of the different pegmatite zones reveals an overall composition similar to the PPG with respect to Si, Al, Na, and K. Yet the pegmatite is depleted in Fe, Mg, Ca, Ti, Mn, and P, the high-field-strength elements (HFSE; Zr, Hf, Nb, Y, Th), and, most significantly, total REE compared to the PPG. Despite containing the LREE minerals fluocerite and bastnäsite, the lack of a net overall REE enrichment of the pegmatite compared to the PPG reflects the large amount of REE-poor silicate minerals forming the wall, intermediate, and core zones of the pegmatite. The calculated total pegmatite composition suggests that the pegmatite formed by the separation from the PPG magma of an F-poor H2O-saturated silicate melt depleted in REE and HFSE compared to the F-rich melts, which formed the NYF-type HREE-rich (LaN/YbN < 1) pegmatites in the South Platte district. Homogenization temperatures of < 500°C for possibly primary fluid inclusions in large quartz crystals from the core of the Wellington Lake pegmatite are consistent with recent models of pegmatite petrogenesis leading to nucleation controlled mega-crystal growth resulting from supercooling.
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