Hydrothermal clinopyroxenes of the Skaergaard intrusion

Magmatic augites reacted with high temperature aqueous solutions to form secondary calcic pyroxenes during the subsolidus cooling of the Skaergaard intrusion. Secondary, hydrothermal clinopyroxenes replace wall rock igneous augites at the margins of veins filled with calcic amphibole. These veins are up to several millimeters wide and tens of meters in length. Hydrothermal clinopyroxenes are a ubiquitous and characteristic phase in the earliest veins throughout the Layered Series of the intrusion, and occur rarely in late veins that, in some places, crosscut the early veins. Associated secondary phases in early veins include amphiboles ranging in composition from actinolite to hornblende, together with biotite, Fe-Ti oxides and calcic plagioclase. Hydrothermal clinopyroxenes in late veins may be associated with actinolite, hornblende, biotite, magnetite and albite.Hydrothermal clinopyroxenes are depleted in Fe, Mg and minor elements, and enriched in Ca and Si relative to igneous augites in the Layered Series gabbros. Secondary vein pyroxenes are similar in composition to calcic pyroxenes from amphibolite facies metamorphic rocks. Clinopyroxene solvus thermometry suggests minimum temperatures of equilibration of between 500° and 750° C. These temperatures, combined with numerical transport models of the intrusion, suggest that vein clinopyroxenes could have formed during 20,000 to 60,000 year time intervals associated with a maximum in the fluid flux through fractures in the Layered Series.