Age and Geochemical Characteristics of a Mafic Dyke Swarm in the Archaean Vestfold Block, Antarctica: Inferences about Proterozoic Dyke Emplacement in Gondwana

Archaean gneisses in the Vestfold Block, Antarctica are cutby abundant tholeiite and rare alkaline dykes. At least fivegenerations of dykes have been recognized on the basis of intrusiverelationships, petrography and geochemistry. Rb-Sr isotopicdata indicate that intrusion of the tholeiites occurred overa period of c. 1000 Ma, during three clearly defined events(viz. c. 2400, 1800, and 1400 Ma). Dykes in the southwesternpart of the Vestfold Block were recrystallized during a lateProterozoic (c. 1000-1100 Ma) high-grade event. Mineral-wholerock Rb-Sr isotopic data show that the terrain was also variablyaffected by an even younger thermal event c. 500 Ma ago whichis correlated with the Pan-African Orogeny. Isotopic, major element and trace element data suggest thatthe tholeiite dyke suites were derived by varying degrees ofpartial melting of compositionally distinct, in some cases ratherheterogeneous subcontinental mantle source regions, combinedwith variations in the extent and nature of crystal fractionation.Extensive crustal contamination does not appear to have playeda significant role in determining compositional trends withinthe different suites, although minor contamination cannot bediscounted. The oldest dykes, a diverse group of high-Mg tholeiites,and the youngest, c. 1400 Ma tholeiites, appear to have beenderived from isotopically similar source regions, which werenevertheless characterized by quite different abundances ofhighly incompatible elements (Pb, Rb, Ba, Th, K, La, and Ce).1800 Ma tholeiites were derived from a more radiogenic mantlesource region, characterized by long-term enrichment in incompatibleelements. Such enrichment is interpreted to be a consequenceof metasomatism of their mantle source region. 2400 Ma high-Mg dykes in Enderby Land have virtually identicalchemical and isotopic compositions to those in the VestfoldBlock, indicating generation from a similar source region; however,1200 Ma tholeiites were apparently derived from a more radiogenicsource region like that of the c. 1800 Ma Vestfold Block dykes.Hence, both Sr isotopic and geochemical data indicate that theancient subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath Gondwanawas extremely heterogeneous.