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Home > Iowa Academy of Science > Journals & Newsletters > Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science > Volume 98 (1991) > Number 4

 

Document Type

Research

Keywords

Archean, layered intrusive, gabbro, dunite, lamprophyre, banded iron formation, greenstone belts

Abstract

Rocks from a buried igneous body, herein called the Otter Creek layered igneous complex, were recovered by drilling in Archean rocks in northwestern Iowa. This complex consists of layers of ultramafic and mafic cumulate rocks, including bronzitite, harzburgite, dunite, gabbro, and anorthosite. These rocks have been subjected to low-grade metamorphism with a patagenesis including serpentine, chlorite, talc, uralitic amphiboles, magnetite, albite, epidote, sericite, and minor quartz and calcite. During its intrusion, the magma which gave rise to the layered body engulfed a large block of rock consisting of banded iron formation and thin lamprophyre dikes. Both the iron formation and the lamprophyre show evidence of high-temperature metamorphism followed by a retrograde event. Chemical compositions of the layered rocks and the lamprophyre are indicative of both having been derived from a primitive to slightly depleted mantle source. Comparison with similar rocks in the Superior Province indicate that the Otter Creek complex is part of a greenstone belt and was probably generated near the terminal stages of its development.

Publication Date

December 1991

Journal Title

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

98

Issue

4

First Page

170

Last Page

177

Copyright

© Copyright 1991 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

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