Mineralogy and Petrology of Erta Ale and Boina Volcanic Series, Afar Rift, Ethiopia

Erta Ale and Boina are two volcanic areas in northern Afar riftwhere a complete suite of products from mildly alkalic transitionalbasalts to peralkaline rhyolites have been erupted in very recentQuaternary time. Subaphyric lava samples of both localities,representing the entire sequence of erupted magmas, have beenselected for a mineralogical study and all the main mineralphases analysed with the microprobe. Results confirm that ErtaAle and Boina rocks can be explained as suites of liquids producedby fractional crystallization of transitional basalts at shallowcrustal levels. The crystallization history is reconstructedand temperature and oxygen fugacity are evaluated. The differentiationprocesses are quantitatively reconstructed using the compositionsof analysed microphenocrysts to compute the fraction of thesolids separating at each step of fractionation. Slight butclear chemical differences in the parent basalt are reflectedin the two series particularly in the late stages of fractionation.The slightly more alkalic Boina series was produced under fO²controlled by QFM buffer; olivine was stable all along the crystallizationinterval and clinopyroxenes have compositions intermediate betweenthose considered typical of respectively tholeiitic and alkalicsuites. The main differences between the two series are a shiftin the appearance of oxides towards more evolved liquids, crystallizationat Erta Ale of more calcic plagioclase and more magnesian olivineand clinopyroxene than those observed at Boina from liquidswith the same Ca/(Na + Ca) and Mg/(Fe + Mg) and the lack ofalkali feldspar in Erta Ale rhyolites. Together with the lowerCa content of Erta Ale clinopyroxenes, they are the expressionof the more tholeiitic affinity of Erta Ale rocks. Departuresfrom the typical mineralogy of the series are observed for someErta Ale basalt and rhyolite and variously explained as an expressionof a slight difference in the primary nature of the magma, asa liquid-xenocrysts mixing and as fO₂ changes in an open system. Present address: Bureau de Reacherches Géologiques et Minières, Département Géothermie, Orléans, France.