AbstractClinopyroxenes are dominant in highly potassic, silica undersaturated mafic volcanics occurring on the western rim of the uplifted, rifted East African craton. A kimbcrlite style of eruption provides nodules of alkali clinopyroxenite (clinopyroxene + titaniferous phlogopite+titanomagnetite, apatite, sphene, and rare corroded olivine) which have similar bulk chemistry to the feldspathoid-bearing lavas. Many nodules display metasomatic textures supporting a formation from the alteration of pre-existing material; clinopyroxene growth is characterized by complex, non-oscillatory colour zoning. Comparison of natural clinopyroxene chemistry with published data for elinopyroxenes crystallized from synthetic potassium-rich mafic material, suggests that a significant proportion of the nodules crystallized at upper-mantle pressures. Neither garnet- nor orthopyroxene-bearing nodules have ever been recorded from south-west Uganda, suggesting that metasomatism of the local mantle has proceeded far enough to obliterate all recognizable remnants of four-phase lherzolite.
Regional seismic stratigraphic correlations of the Ross Sea: Implications for the tectonic history of the West Antarctic Rift System