Geochemistry and Rb-sr geochronology of associated proterozoic peralkaline and subalkaline anorogenic granites from Labrador

Anorogenic granites of middle to late Proterozoic age in the Davis Inlet — Flowers Bay area of Labrador are subdivided on the basis of petrology and geochemistry into three coeval suites. Two of these are high-temperature anhydrous hypersolvus granites: a peralkaline aegirine-sodic-calcic to sodic amphibole-bearing suite and a non-alkaline fayalite-pyroxene-bearing suite. The third is a group of non-alkaline subsolvus hornblende-biotite-bearing granites. Associated with the hypersolvus peralkaline suite is a group of genetically related syenites and quartz syenites. The granites cut ca. 3,000 Ma old Archaean gneisses as well as Elsonian layered basic intrusions of the Nain Complex. One of these, a crudely layered mass which ranges in composition from gabbro to diorite and monzonite, appears to be related to the syenites. The peralkaline granites and some of the syenites are extremely enriched in the high field-strength elements such as Y, Zr, Nd, as well as Rb, Ga and Zn, and have low abundances of Ba, Sr and most of the transition elements. In contrast, the non-alkaline hypersolvus and subsolvus granites do not show the same degree of enrichment. Concentration of the highly charged cations in the peralkaline suite is believed to be the result of halogen-rich fluid activity during fractionation of the magma. The sodic evolution trend in the peralkaline suite is reflected mineralogically by the development of aegirine and aegirine-hedenbergite solid solutions, and by a spectacular amphibole compositional range from katophorite through winchite, richterite, riebeckite to arfvedsonite and ferro eckermannite. Accessory phases which are ubiquitous in these rocks include aenigmatite, astrophyllite, fluorite, monazite and zircon. The non-alkaline hypersolvus granites typically contain iron-rich phases such as fayalite, eulite, ferrosilite-hedenbergite, and annite rich biotite. In the subsolvus granites, amphiboles range in composition from edenite through common hornblende to actinolite and also coexist with annite-rich biotite.Whole-rock and mineral isotopic data for the different suites yield isochrons that are within error of ca. 1,260 Ma, but they have variable initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios. The initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of the syenites and peralkaline granites (0.7076±11) is significantly lower than the initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of the subsolvus granites (0.7138±22). These isotopic data provide further confirmation of the importance of a late Elsonian alkaline event in Labrador which can be correlated with Gardar igneous activity in south Greenland. The petrogenesis of the peralkaline suite is interpreted to reflect the effects of fractionation of anhydrous phases from mantle derived basic magma which was contaminated during ascent by radiogenic partial melts of crustal derivation. The non-alkaline hypersolvus and subsolvus granites are interpreted as crustal melts which formed under conditions of variable in response to the same thermal event, and which subsequently experienced feldspar fractionation during crystallization.