Plagioclase-mantled K-feldspar in the Carboniferous porphyritic microgranite of Altenberg-Frauenstein, Eastern Erzgebirge / Krušné Hory

• Main Authors: A. Müller, R. Seltmann
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Geological Society of Finland 2002-12-01
• Series: Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland
• Subjects: granites; rapakivi; microgranite; porphyritic texture; phenocrysts; Kfeldspar; geochemistry; mineral composition; magma chambers; Carboniferous; Altenberg; Frauenstein; Erzgebirge; Germany
• Online Access: http://www.geologinenseura.fi/bulletin/Volume74/MullerSteltmann.pdf

The Upper Carboniferous porphyritic microgranite of Altenberg-Frauenstein, formerly known as Granitporphyr (Dalmer 1896) and here abbreviated as GP, forms a 36 km long and up to 18 km wide complex of ring dykes related to the Teplice-Altenberg caldera in the German–Czech border region of the Eastern Erzgebirge/Kruvsné Hory. The microgranites are characterized by the occurrence of plagioclase-mantled K-feldspar phenocrysts. The microgranite varieties represent two main stages of intrusion evolved from acid (GP I) to intermediate rocks (GP II) within the intrusion. The most acid rock (GP Icum) occurs as enclaves in GP I and GP II and is interpreted as a cumulate of K-feldspar and quartz phenocrysts. The porphyritic microgranites show field, textural and geochemical evidence suggesting that some of them have formed as a result of interaction between felsic and mafic magmas. Mixing features are abundant in the porphyritic quartz-feldspar-hornblende microgranite (GP II) interpreted as a hybrid rock. They are less discrete in the early phase (GP I) and not obvious in the acid enclaves (GP Icum). This trend seems to reflect a continuous deflation of the magma chamber from the top to the bottom. According to the definition of rapakivi granites after Haapala and Rämö (1992), the porphyritic microgranite of Altenberg-Frauenstein may be considered as rapakivi granite although ovoid alkali feldspar megacrysts typical of classical rapakivi granites are not recorded. However, due to its Carboniferous age and being the only known granite with rapakivi texture in the German–Czech part of the Variscan belt, the microgranite of Altenberg-Frauenstein is exceptional.