The Los Pinos gabbro is located on the eastern margin of the gabbro sub-belt of the Peninsular Ranges batholilh. Two lithologic sequences are recognized in this pluton. The outer group consists of bimodal assemblages of hornblende and plagioclase in several textural varieties, whereas the inner group contains a variety of olivine–plagioclase rocks. Symplectitic intergrowths of spinel, amphibole, and orthopyroxene have developed wherever the olivine and plagioclase were in contact. The outer group is generally the older of the two, although there is evidence suggesting that their emplacement overlapped in time. The contact between the two groups is characterized locally by sequences of comb layers up to 65 m thick. Major-element chemical analyses emphasize the differences between the two groups. The outer group is generally richer in total alkalis, titanium, and silica. Variation diagrams suggest that different differentiation mechanisms operated within each group.Textural and published experimental data suggest that the two groups are derived from a parent magma by clinopyroxene fractionation at PT > 5 kbar. The more silicic differentiates were emplaced at shallower levels into a series of regionally metamorphosed pelitic rocks. Volatile streaming in restricted channels along a conduit zone and periodic degassing of the melt, possibly through volcanic eruption, produced the comb layering in the summit region. The remaining fraction intruded along the old conduit zone. Differentiation at these shallower levels (PT < 5 kbar) produced the olivine–plagioclase cumulates. The symplectic intergrowths in these units formed at this shallower level prior to the solidification of the melt.
Geochemical diagnostics of metasedimentary dark enclaves: a case study from the Peninsular Ranges Batholith, southern California
