Geochemistry of phlogopite, diopside, calcite, anhydrite and apatite pegmatites and syenites of southern Madagascar: evidence for crustal silicocarbonatitic (CSC) melt formation in a Panafrican collisional tectonic setting

The phlogopite, diopside, calcite, anhydrite and apatite pegmatites of Ampandrandava and Beraketa are examples for the many other pegmatites of similar silicocarbonatitic composition found in the Bekily and Betroka-Beraketa Precambrian belts of southern Madagascar. The two studied pegmatites and associated syenites crystallised from immiscible silicocarbonatitic and peralkaline syenitic melts in a time span between 515 and 504 Ma in the final extensional phase of the Panafrican continental collision and connected metamorphic/metasomatic event. Model T _Nd ages suggest that the melts were produced by partial melting of 3.5 Ga partially evaporitic continental crust. The studied pegmatites and genetically associated syenitic rocks are very rare examples for crustal silicocarbonatitic melts generated in a Panafrican collisional setting. The overwhelming majority of carbonatites and associated peralkaline rocks are mantle derived, much poorer in phosphate and sulfate and found in a cratonic environment. In light of the present results, genetic models for other sulfate- and phosphate-rich magmatic rocks (e.g., phlogopite–apatite–calcite mineralisations in the Grenville-Hasting formation in Canada and in the Sludyanka group in Eastern Siberia) should be reevaluated.