Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
Mineralogical Magazine Email Content Delivery
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mineralogical Magazine; April 2006; v. 70; no. 2; p. 231-236; DOI: 10.1180/0026461067020327
© 2006 Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bailey, K.
Right arrow Articles by Paterson, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

Extensive dolomitic volcanism through the Limagne Basin, central France: a new form of carbonatite activity

K. Bailey1,*, S. Kearns1, J. Mergoil2, J. Mergoil Daniel2 and B. Paterson1

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
2 Université Blaise Pascal - Departement des Sciences de la Terre, 5, rue Kessler, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand cedex, France

* E-mail: ken.bailey{at}bris.ac.uk

Recognition of widespread carbonate volcanism in central Spain has led to another case in France, of similar age (23–0 Ma) but with entirely new features. More than 100 new carbonate volcanoes are indicated already, adding a wholly unexpected dimension to this form of activity. Eruptions form layers, mostly of glassy nephelinite fragments in a dolomitic matrix, but some layers are largely dolomite. Major new findings are phenocrysts of dolomite, magnesite and calcite in silicate glass, and spectacular dolomite-nephelinite melt immiscibility, neither recorded previously. Most volcanic carbonatites are Ca rich, and dolomite is rare. The Limagne dolomites share links with those in Spain and Zambia, with chromite a hallmark in all three. Limagne is exceptional in being the first case where dolomite has erupted with co-genetic silicate melt. Mantle debris and magnesite indicate a source within ~100–150 km. Chromite in the dolomite globules, and in the enclosing silicate glass, is similar to that in high-temperature kimberlites, indicating immiscibility in the deep mantle. Recognition of two large, previously undetected provinces of carbonate volcanism in Europe, where there has been active research for >200 y, must lead to the inference that similar cases may await discovery on other continents.

KEYWORDS: dolomite, nephelinite, magnesite, phenocrysts, unmixing, kimberlite, peperite






JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2008 by Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland