Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2015
Abstract
The Archean Stillwater Complex is a large layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion (LMI) exposed in the
Beartooth Mountains of south-central Montana. Gravity measurements suggest that the north-dipping complex extends under cover at depth. Some of the exposures located above the subsurface Stillwater Complex are younger Cretaceous stocks (Susie Peak and Sliderock Mountain stocks), diorite sills and andesite dikes, exposed north of the complex, passed through area of the gravity anomaly that may be the Stillwater Complex. In the summer of 2013, samples of the stocks and their included xenoliths (foreign rock fragments; commonly metamorphosed to greenschist facies conditions) were collected for study. Xenoliths with textures reminiscent of Stillwater Complex cumulates were chosen for further investigation. The host andesitic rocks containing the xenoliths exhibit porphyritic textures—phenocrysts of plagioclase, amphibole ± biotite occur in a finer-grained groundmass of the same minerals. Electron microprobe analyses of amphibole grains from both the host and xenolith are comparable in composition. Electron microprobe analyses for two samples of coexisting xenolith amphibole (Tschermakitic hornblende, magnesio-hastingsite) and plagioclase (rim An83-91Ab17-9) constrain temperature conditions at various pressures (P at 3, 5, and 6 kb; T = 500-656°C, respectively using Holland and Blundy (1994). These conditions are consistent with amphibolite facies metamorphism. Few xenoliths retain the original igneous mineralogy (with the exception of plagioclase) but one sample contains relict “Stillwater-like” mineralogy (e.g., clinopyroxene) and another contains chromite. Plagioclase and relict clinopyroxene compositions are somewhat comparable to Stillwater mineral compositions. The fact that the xenoliths are now metamorphosed and highly altered suggests that either they were metamorphosed prior to their inclusion in the melt or were metamorphosed or hydrothermally altered as a result of incorporation into the melt.
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Recommended Citation
Hennings, Cassandra K.; Thomson, Jennifer A.; and Zientek, Michael L., "The Origin of Xenoliths with Cumulus Textures Found Above the Subsurface Extension of the Stillwater Complex, Montana" (2015). Geology Student Works. 1.
https://dc.ewu.edu/geo_student/1
Comments
Presented at the 86th Annual Meeting Northwest Scientific Association, April 1-4, 2015, Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA, http://www.northwestscience.org/.