Search results for "Nephelinite"

Low-pressure fractionation of the Nyiragongo volcanic rocks, Virunga Province, D.R. Congo

2004

Abstract A new petrogenetic model for the Nyiragongo volcanics based on petrological and geochemical studies of a wide range of highly alkaline and silica-undersaturated fractionated rocks (Mg# 23–44) invokes low-pressure fractionation occurring mainly within the Nyiragongo volcanic edifice. The most primitive Nyiragongo rocks seem correspond to a pyroxene-nephelinitic melt which evolved to melilite nephelinite and melilitite by fractionation of leucite, together with varying amounts of nepheline. Leucite nephelinite, leucitite and leucite tephrite represent rock types originating partly by phenocryst accumulation. Mineral and bulk rock geochemistry of pyroxene nephelinites indicate an alre…