Carbonate–silicate immiscibility and extremely peralkaline silicate glasses from Nasira cone and recent eruptions at Oldoinyo Lengai Volcano, Tanzania

Phenocrysts of garnet, pyroxene and nepheline in peralkaline nephelinite from the Nasira parasitic cones at Oldoinyo Lengai contain quenched immiscible silicate (peralkalinity = 2–13) and Na–Ca-carbonate melts. Their bulk compositions further define the limits of liquid immiscibility for peralkaline carbonated nephelinite magmas and confirm this process was operative at Oldoinyo Lengai during older stages of activity. Groundmass glasses in Nasira nephelinites are peralkaline (peralkalinity = 5.5–9.5) but less evolved than melt inclusion glasses (peralkalinity = 8–13) in nepheline phenocrysts, implying that these magmas are hybrids formed by magma mixing. Groundmass glass in diverse peralkaline combeite nephelinite ash clasts with and without melilite and/or wollastonite formed in the January–June 2008 eruptions of Oldoinyo Lengai are also exceptionally peralkaline. Two trends in their compositions are evident: (1) increasing peralkalinity from 6 to 10 with SiO2 decreasing from 42 to 33 wt.%; (2) increasing peralkalinity from 6 to 16 with SiO2 decreasing from 45 to 40 wt.%. All recent glasses are considered to be more evolved than groundmass glass in Nasira combeite nephelinite. These data indicate that several varieties of nephelinite exist at Oldoinyo Lengai. Their parental magmas are considered to have been initially enriched in alkalis during partial melting of their metasomatized asthenospheric sources and further by subsequent assimilation, or re-solution, of previously exsolved natrocarbonatite melt in the magma chamber(s) underlying Oldoinyo Lengai. On this basis, none of the bulk compositions of peralkaline stage II lavas at Oldoinyo Lengai, including Nasira, are considered to represent those of liquids as their compositions are determined by rheological factors (phenocryst accumulation; cumulate disruption) and assimilation processes. The formation of combeite is considered to be a consequence of natrocarbonatite melt assimilation.

► Description of ancient silicate–natrocarbonatite immiscibility at Nasira Cone, Oldoinyo Lengai.
► Recognition of exceptionally peralkaline residual glasses in nephelinites from Oldoinyo Lengai.
► Recognition that all nephelinites at Oldoinyo Lengai are hybrid rocks.
► Proposal that extreme peralkalinity results from re-solution of natrocarbonatite melt in nephelinite magmas.