Tiksheozero ultramafic-alkaline-carbonatite intrusive complex, like numerous carbonatite-bearing complexes of similar composition, is a part of large igneous province, related to the ascent of thermochemical mantle plume. Our geochemical and isotopic data evidence that ultramafites and alkaline rocks are joined by fractional crystallization, whereas carbonatitic magmas has independent origin. We suggest that origin of parental magmas of the Tiksheozero complex, as well as other ultramafic-alkaline-carbonatite complexes, was provided by two-stage melting of the mantle-plume head: 1) adiabatic melting of its inner part, which produced moderately-alkaline picrites, which fractional crystallization led to appearance of alkaline magmas, and 2) incongruent melting of the upper cooled margin of the plume head under the influence of CO2-rich fluids that arrived from underlying zone of adiabatic melting gave rise to carbonatite magmas.
Chemical heterogeneity of the Emeishan mantle plume: Evidence from highly siderophile element abundances in picrites
