Orgin of a precambrian ultramafic intrusion in southeastern Wyoming,U.S.A.

The Preacher Creek ultramafic body is a small, lenticular-shaped intrusion of peridotite exposed in an ancient (2400–2500 m.y.), regionally metamorphosed terrane in southeastern Wyoming, U.S.A. The central core of the body consists of clinopyroxene-olivine peridotite and is surrounded by a marginal rim of peridotite in which orthopyroxene and plagioclase also occur as primary minerals. Alteration of primary minerals is relatively minor. However, at the contact with the country rock progressive alteration of the peridotite to actinolite and chlorite is locally severe. Chemical study of the effect of this alteration indicates that no more than minor changes from the primary composition of the peridotite have occurred. Petrographic studies reveal accumulative textures characteristic of stratiform complexes. Cryptic layering in the body is indicated by partial chemical analyses of the two major primary minerals, olivine and clinopyroxene.The body is inferred to have formed within the earth's crust by fractional crystallization and gravity accumulation of mafic minerals from a gabbroic magma that was differentiating along a tholeiitic trend. Subsequent to (or during) crystallization the body was remobilized, folded, and emplaced in its present site as a tectonic intrusion. Ultramafic intrusions with chemical, mineralogical, and structural features similar to the Preacher Creek body may be best explained perhaps as crystalline accumulates formed in volcanic magma chambers.