Petrogenesis of peralkaline granite dykes of the Straumsvola complex, western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Peralkaline syenite and granite dykes cut the Straumsvola nepheline syenite pluton in Western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The average peralkalinity index (PI = molecular Al/[Na + K]) of the dykes is 1.20 (n = 29) and manifests itself in the presence of the Zr silicates eudialyte, dalyite and vlasovite, and the Na–Ti silicate, narsarsukite. The dykes appear to have intruded during slow cooling of the nepheline syenite pluton, and the petrogenetic relationship of the dykes and the pluton cannot be related to closed-system processes at low pressure, given the thermal divide that exists between silica-undersaturated and oversaturated magmas. Major and trace element variations in the dykes are consistent with a combination of fractional crystallization of parental peralkaline magma of quartz trachyte composition, and internal mineral segregation prior to final solidification. The distribution of accessory minerals is consistent with late-stage crystallization of isolated melt pockets. The dykes give an Rb–Sr isochron age of 171 ± 4.4 Ma, with variable initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio (0.7075 ± 0.0032), and have an average εNd of − 12.0. Quartz phenocrysts have δ18O values of 8.4–9.2‰, which are generally in O-isotope equilibrium with bulk rock. Differences in the δ18O values of quartz and aegirine (average Δquartz−aegirine = 3.5‰) suggest aegirine formation temperatures around 500 °C, lower than expected for a felsic magma, but consistent with poikilitic aegirine that indicates subsolidus growth. The negative εNd (< − 10) and magma δ18O values averaging 8.6‰ (assuming Δquartz−magma = 0.6‰) are inconsistent with a magma produced by closed-system fractional crystallization of a mantle-derived magma. By contrast, the nepheline syenite magma had mantle-like δ18O values and much less negative εNd (average − 3.1, n = 3). The country rock has similar δ18O values to the granite dykes (average 8.0‰, n = 108); this means that models for the petrogenesis of the granites by assimilation are unfeasible, unless an unexposed high-δ18O contaminant is invoked. Instead, it is proposed that the peralkaline syenite and granite dykes formed by partial melting of alkali-metasomatised gneiss that surrounds the nepheline syenite, followed by fractional crystallization.