Basalts from Madeira: A petrochemical contribution to the genesis of oceanic alkali rock series

Petrological and geochemical investigations have been conducted on the little studied Neogene basaltic rocks of the Madeiran Islands. The Madeiran suite of minor intrusives and lavas consists of parental, unusually soda rich, alkali olivine basalts with hawaiite, mugearite and essexite derivatives. Olivine and clinopyroxene are dominant phenocryst and cumulus nodule phases. Low pressure fractionation of the parental magma by precipitation of these minerals gave rise to the hawaiitic trend. That olivine settling precedes clinopyroxene in the fractionation process can be deduced from Ca and Ni variations in the analysed rocks and phenocryst separates. Late stage feldspar flotation in a hawaiitic derivative liquid led to extrusive mugearites and an intrusive essexite.Low K/Rb ratios in the Madeiran basalts (ave. 325) point to the influence of phlogopite rather than hornblende in the mantle melting zone. The primitive alkali olivine basalt magma is thought to have arisen by partial melting following water release from small amounts of phlogopite (no more than 1%) at mantle depths around 100 km. A deep level of magma generation is consistent with the low values of heat flow recorded in ocean basins. Many other oceanic alkali basalt provinces remote from ridge systems may have arisen in a similar way.