Replenishment, Crystal Accumulation and Floor Aggradation in the Megacrystic Kameruka Suite, Australia

Detailed field evidence indicates that the Kameruka Suite plutonsof the Bega Batholith, eastern Australia, grew by crystal accumulationon the floor of a magma chamber. Depositional features in theplutons, including mafic enclave channels, asymmetric enclavepillows and exotic rafts, load casts and flame structures, andgraded and trough cross-beds, indicate that the pluton builtprogressively upward. The general eastward dip of depositionalfeatures in the main pluton implies a lower western and uppereastern contact, consistent with a basal granite–migmatitecontact in the west and a sharp hornfelsic sidewall contactin the east. Mafic, felsic and composite dykes, most commonnear and below the basal western contact, are interpreted asconduits for magma chamber replenishment and imply open-systembehaviour during pluton construction. Textural relations arealso consistent with an open-system, cumulate origin. Typically,centimetre-scale grains of quartz, plagioclase and megacrysticalkali feldspar form a touching framework with interstices filledwith smaller biotite flakes and smaller intercumulus quartzand feldspar crystals. Alkali feldspar megacrysts vary fromeuhedral and unzoned, to mantled and partially replaced by plagioclase,to ovoid and completely pseudomorphed by quartz–albiteaggregates. The common occurrence of mantled and pseudomorphedalkali feldspar in mafic enclaves, and in hybrid tonalitic rocksforming the matrix to enclave swarms, suggests that replacementor resorption of granitic primocrysts was associated with maficreplenishments. The occurrence of all megacryst types at outcropscale implies extended alkali feldspar crystallization in differentparts of the chamber, thorough stirring during, or after, periodicreplenishment, and final settling in a cumulate mush. The bulkcomposition of the cumulate mush, represented by granodiorite,cannot represent the emplaced magma. Compositional variationcan be modelled by variable degrees of crystal accumulationfrom a parental, silica-rich melt represented by the silicicdykes. As dykes periodically fed the magma chamber, crystalsaccumulated on the floor, and more evolved melts probably eruptedfrom its roof. Thus, the average composition of the magma, andthe cumulus minerals, may have remained relatively constant,and the sublinear chemical trends that typify the Kameruka Suitesimply reflect differing proportions of melt and cumulate material.Sublinear chemical trends can also be explained by a restitemodel; however, the distinctive Ba, light rare earth elementand Zr spikes at high silica can be explained only by a cumulatemodel, which also explains why the low-silica granites of thesuite share the same chemical characteristics as the high-silicagranites. KEY WORDS: crystal accumulation; magma chamber; open system; granitoids; Kameruka; Australia