Orthopyroxene minettes and lamproites: their status and genetic significance

Orthopyroxene is a normal if rare, constituent of some minettes and lamproites. It is sometimes partly xenocrystic, but mostly authigenic, i.e. separated directly from lamprophyric magmas, as can be shown when orthopyroxene lamprophyres are compared with the experimental phase diagrams of appropriate systems. The orthopyroxene-bearing lamprophyres represent modified mantle-derived magmas characterized by a high MgO, high SiO₂ speciation which was acquired in different ways in individual regions. The crystallization of orthopyroxene lamprophyres was not controlled by particular pressure — temperature conditions. Compared with clinopyroxene potassic lamprophyres the orthopyroxene lamprophyres represent more primitive magmas. Orthopyroxene minettes can also be altered by a post-magmatic hydrothermal inflow, which occasionally increases their CaO content to the level normal in clinopyroxene minettes. If this had happened before magma consolidation, clinopyroxene instead of orthopyroxene would have crystallized. Orthopyroxene minettes are well defined mineralogically and chemically and may be related to other types in the minette series.