Accessory and rock forming minerals monitoring the evolution of zoned mafic-ultramafic complexes in the Central Ural Mountains

Diopside from chromitites and cross cutting diopside veins in dunite has similar trace element patterns with LREE/HREE ratios (e.g. La/Lu = 5-60) much higher than those in diopside from all other lithologies. We suggest that the chromitites formed at high temperatures (800-900 °C) during the waning stages of solidification as a result of the interaction of an incompatible element-rich melt or fluid with the dunite cumulates.