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Published 1986 | public
Book Section - Chapter

Calcite and Dolomite without Portlandite at a new Eutectic in CaO-MgO-CO_2-H2_O with Applications to Carbonatites

Abstract

Bröggers (1921) idea of a carbonatite magma was not widely accepted. Shand (1947, p. 326) concluded that "a carbonate magma…would be a very strange thing indeed". The existence of carbonatite magmas appeared less strange when Wyllie and Tuttle (1960) discovered that melts in the system CaO-CO_2-H_2O precipitate calcite down to temperatures below 650°C at very low pressures. The low-temperature synthetic carbonatite magmas are near a eutectic between calcite and portlandite in the system CaCO_3-Ca(OH)_2. A magmatic origin for most carbonatites was favored by the field evidence summarized in books by Heinrich (1966) and Tuttle and Gittins (1966), although the overprint of the deuteric stage and hydrothermal or carbothermal activity may obscure the interpretation.

Additional Information

© 1986 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. This research was supported by the Earth Sciences Section of the National Science Foundation, NSF Grants EAR 76-20410 and EAR 81-08599.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 25, 2023