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The geochemistry and cryptic zonation of pyrochlore from San Vicente, Cape Verde Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

N. A. Hodgson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Leicester University, Leicester LE1 7RH
M. J. Le Bas
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Leicester University, Leicester LE1 7RH

Abstract

Zr-rich pyrochlore crystals in carbonatite from San Vicente (Cape Verdes Islands) show cryptic, concentric and rhythmic chemical zonation with Ca increasing and Ti, U and Zr decreasing towards the rims. In one carbonatite, taken from the Camile dyke, previously undocumented cryptic sector zonation of Ti, U and Zr is also observed in these crystals. The chemical variation is investigated by wavelength-dispersive electron microprobe, with both single spot and crystal map analyses.

The concentric and rhythmic zonation, marked by element substitution, was generated by magma heterogeneity and/or element diffusion kinetics, but it is suggested that the sector zonation, marked by differential site substitution, was governed by protosite variation between octahedral and cubic faces.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1992

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Footnotes

*

Present address: British Gas Corporation, 59 Byranston Street, London W1A 2AZ.

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