The Volyn continental flood basalt province is situated on the western margin of the East European platform and constitutes a significant portion of the passive continental margin sequence formed along the Trans-European Suture Zone in response to Rodinia break-up in the Neoproterozoic. In Ukraine, the volcanogenic sequence is subdivided into suites called Zabolottya, Babyne and Ratne, which together with the lowermost terrigeneous Gorbashy suite comprise the Volyn series. Magmatic zircons from one high-Ti basalt sample yielded an age of 573 ± 14 Ma, whereas grains isolated from a rhyolitic dacite yielded an age of 571 ± 13 Ma. Baddeleyite from the olivine dolerite sample gave an older 206 Pb/ 238 U age of 626 ± 17 Ma, whereas the 207 Pb/ 206 Pb weighted average age of 567 ± 61 Ma is close to the zircon ages. Zircons separated from the other basaltic samples are much older and crystallized at c.
The Ediacaran continental flood basalts and associated tuffs were studied to identify and quantify alteration processes by means of XRD and chemistry, supplemented by Mössbauer and FTIR spectroscopies, petrography, oxygen and iron isotopes, K-Ar dating, and organic geochemistry. Two superimposed alteration processes were identified: the Ediacaran hydrothermal alteration, induced by meteoric waters, heated and put in motion by the cooling basalt, and the Caledonian and/or Variscan potassic alteration. The degree of basalt alteration was quantified using as an index the sum of primary minerals in the bulk rock. The sequence of minerals dissolved and crystallized during the hydrothermal alteration was established. The alteration resulted in the loss of Ca (dissolution of plagioclases), compensated by the gain of water and Mg (crystallization of clays), and proceeded from the edges of the basalt flows in an oxidizing environment, evidenced by the increasing amount of hematite and Fe 3+ /Fe 2+ ratio of the bulk rock. Cyanobacteria were active in the hydrothermal system, most probably responsible for the measured negative 56 Fe values and more reducing conditions at the stage of intense alteration. Chlorophaeite (palagonite), following quartz as the earliest petrographically identifiable basalt alteration product was found to vary systematically from fully isotropic to birefringent. The chlorophaeite was identified as a mixture of Femontmorillonite and Fe-saponite, identical with griffithite and oxysmectites, probably preceded by a finer-grained ferrosaponite at the isotropic stage. REE content of chlorophaeite indicates basaltic volcanic glass (sideromelane) as the major source of material. REE in clays are contained mostly in the dioctahedral smectite, while in the bulk rock mostly in phosphates. The smectite characteristics and Mg enrichment are indicative of the hydrothermal basalt alteration process, which perhaps was dominant also on Mars. Both mineral and chemical composition of tuffs vary continuously from basaltic to felsic, the latter close to the measured rhyodacite composition, dominated by quartz and feldspars. The basaltic tuffs resemble the most altered basalts but contain also abundant albite and chlorite, indicative of higher alteration temperatures, up to 220 o C. Tuff composition indicates stronger component of felsic volcanism in the trap formation than evidenced by the preserved bodies of effusive rocks.
For the first time, the authors determined lateral-temporal series of magmatic complexes of the Late Frasnian-Early Famennian Pripyat-Dnieper Magmatic Area according to the results of petrological and geochemical study of rocks of the Pripyat-Dnieper Magmatic Area (north-western part of the Pripyat-Dnieper-Donetsk Magmatic Province) in the southwest of the East European Platform using the principles of structural-material analysis and taking into account previous studies. The series consists of four complexes, formed during stages of magmatic activity, separated by time intervals: Zhlobin Complex (Rechitsa Time, the beginning of the Late Frasnian), Uvarovichi complex (Late Voronezh Time, the middle of the Late Frasnian), Pripyat Complex (Skolodin (Skolodin-Chernin?) Time, the end of the Late Frasnian) and Loev complex (Yelets (Yelets- Petrikov?) Time, Early Famennian). The rocks of the Zhlobin Complex belong to the alkaline-ultramafic (carbonatite-kimberlite-nephelinite) formation; Uvarovichi Complex - to the alkaline-mafic formation (basaltoids and phonolites); Pripyat Complex - to the alkaline-mafic-salic formation (trachyandesites); Loev Complex - to the alkaline-ultramafic (nepheline) formation.
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