Sulfide petrology of basal chilled margins in layered sills of the Archean Deer Lake Complex,Minnesota

Sulfide minerals in amounts up to 3 vol% are found in basal, chilled marginal zones of two layered peridotite-pyroxenite-gabbro sills in the Early Precambrian Deer Lake Complex, northcentral Minnesota. The sulfides occur interstitially to silicate minerals, and consist of pyrrhotite with minor exsolved cobaltian pentlandite, chalcopyrite, gersdorffite, and marcasite±pyrite as an alteration product of pyrrhotite.The basal chilled units (3–6 m) of the sills are divisable into three zones based primarily on textures. The lowermost zone is an equigranular basalt, whereas the overlying zone is characterized by skeletal, spinifex-like actinolite after clinopyroxene. The upper zone of the basal margins contains elongate and swallow tail plagioclase, and is barren of sulfide minerals.Electron microprobe analyses of sulfide minerals and modal data suggest that sulfide bulk compositions at 1,100–1,000 ° C represent a pyrrhotite solid solution and a coexisting Cu-rich sulfide liquid. Cooling of the Cu-rich liquid and low temperature transformations are thought to have produced chalcopyrite or chalcopyrite plus pyrrhotite. The sulfide minerals have reequlibrated to temperatures near 300 ° C or less.Analyses of sulfur content and ³⁴S values suggest that assimilation of sulfur from adjacent country rocks was the principal mechanism responsible for anomalous concentrations of sulfides in the basal chilled margins. The distribution of sulfides in the peridotite-pyroxenite-gabbro portions of the sills, and calculations of settling rate preclude an origin involving gravitational settling of immiscible droplets through the magma body.