Silicate-carbonate liquid immiscibility and crystallization of carbonate and K-rich basaltic magma: insights from melt and fluid inclusions

This paper reports an investigation of the crystallization products of K-rich silicate and carbonate melts trapped as melt inclusions in clinopyroxene phenocrysts from the Dunkeldyk alkaline igneous complex in the Tajik Republic. Heating experiments on the melt inclusions suggest that the carbonate melt was formed by liquid immiscibility at 1180 degrees C and similar to 0.5 GPa. The carbonate-rich inclusions are dominated by Sr-bearing calcite, and rich in incompatible elements. Most of the silicate minerals are SiO2-poor and rich in K, Ba and Ti. Leucite, kalsilite and aegirine are the earliest magmatic minerals. High Ba and Ti contents in the melt resulted in the crystallization of Ba-rich K-feldspar, titanite, perovskite and Ti-bearing garnet, and the rare Ba-Ti silicates fresnoite and delindeite. The last minerals to crystallize from volatile-rich melts and fluids were aegirine, gotzenite, K-Ba-and Ca-Sr-bearing zeolites, fluorite and strontium-rich baryte. Interaction of the early minerals with residual melts and fluids produced Ba-rich phlogopite and Sr-rich apatite.