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Chemical Composition and Genetic Relations of Meta-Volcanic Rocks from the Rhenohercynian Belt of Northwest Germany

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Intracontinental Fold Belts

Abstract

Typical metavolcanic products in the Rhenohercynian Belt are spilites, quartz keratophyres, keratophyres and their pyroclastics. Meta-andesites are absent. The climax of volcanism occurred during the Middle Devonian, but activity continued until the Lower Carboniferous (mainly in the Lahn-Dill area).

65 spilites (including picritic and high potassium species) and 16 quartz keratophyres from the Rhenohercynian Belt have been analyzed for the major elements, oxygen isotopes and 28 trace elements. INA data on Sc, Cs, REE, Hf, Ta, Th, U and δ180 values are restricted to a selection of samples. C02, p2O5, TiO2 and K20 are lower in spilites still containing relict basaltic minerals than in samples without these remainders. Average CO2 concentrations as high as 8 % characterize potassium rich spilites with 4.7 % K2O as products of enhanced metasomatic alteration. The variability of Rb, Ba, Sr, Cs and U concentrations is larger than of other elements probably due to easy mobilization at low temperatures and metamorphic grades. The composition of picritic spilites is comparable with a 2:1 mixture of dunite and within-plate tholeiite. The majority of spilites has lost Si and Ca and gained OH, CO2, Na and K relative to within plate tholeiites and to ocean ridge tholeiites. δ18O values from basalts to spilites increase with the degree of alteration. Reactions with sea water at temperatures up to about 120#x00B0;C are very effective to attain total rock δ18O ranges from +10 to +16 %˚. A systematically higher δ18O of the carbonate fraction can be explained by a temperature of carbonate precipitation lower than that of silicate reactions. Parageneses of metamorphic minerals are formed in the temperature range up to 350°C. In spite of the large literature evidence on secondary mobilization of numerous minor elements (including REE) in water-basalt reactions our spilites still contain enough of the primary element association to recognize within-plate type tholeiites (Sauerland, NW-Harz) and ocean-ridge type tholeiites (ORT) (Lahn-Dill). Because of almost equal secondary alteration in all areas, the regional predominance of certain basaltic element associations cannot originate from metasomatism. Samples from the most southern localities (approaching the Central German Rise) are depleted in light REE. The remainder of samples from the Lahn-Dill area exhibit a slight LREE enrichment comparable to ORT rocks from the Atlantic Ridge at 45°N. The present restriction of ORT type basalts to ocean ridges has not to be assumed for the geologic past. According to experimental evidence mineral composition and major and trace element geochemistry of ORT basalts can be derived from relatively large degrees of partial melting of mantle rocks at shallow depth (10–15 kb). This condition requires a high heat flow. Therefore, a gradient of increasing heat flow in the Rhenohercynian Belt is to be assumed from north to south. Chemical data indicate the close resemblance of quartz-keratophyres with alkaline or peralkaline rhyolites and glasses and make an origin from differentiation of mafic magmas probable. The less abundant keratophyres can be alteration products of trachytes (according to REE patterns which also indicate differentiation). Late Middle Devonian hematitic iron ore deposition probably dates the climax of hydrothermal basalt alteration as preceding thp peak of low grade regional metamorphism in the Carboniferous.

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  1. Geochemisches Institut, Goldschmidtstraße 1, 3400, Göttingen, Germany

    K. H. Wedepohl & K. Meyer

  2. Department of Geology, Dalhousie University, B3H 3J5, Halifax, N.S., Canada

    G. K. Muecke

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  1. Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität, Goldschmidtstr. 3, 3400, Göttingen, Germany

    Henno Martin

  2. Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut, Goldschmidtstr. 3, 3400, Göttingen, Germany

    Franz Wolfgang Eder

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Wedepohl, K.H., Meyer, K., Muecke, G.K. (1983). Chemical Composition and Genetic Relations of Meta-Volcanic Rocks from the Rhenohercynian Belt of Northwest Germany. In: Martin, H., Eder, F.W. (eds) Intracontinental Fold Belts. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69124-9_11

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