First Discovery of Paleoproterozoic Aillikite Dikes in Sarmatia: Geochemistry and Petrogenesis

Aillikite dikes of carbonate–biotite composition, intersecting Paleoproterozoic banded iron formations, were discovered in the Kursk block of Sarmatia for the first time. Their age is 2.10–2.07 Ga. The aillikite dikes underwent epidote–amphibolite facies metamorphism (550°С, 2–3 kbar), and they are deformed and foliated. Primary magmatic olivine and pyroxene were not preserved. In terms of geochemistry, ultramafic lamprophyres of the Kursk block are similar to petrotypical aillikites. They are depleted in SiO2 and Al2O3 and enriched in MgO, TiO2, K2O, Cr, Ni, and Nb with highly fractionated LREE and HREE. The highly radiogenic neodymium isotopic composition is indicative of a juvenile enriched (metasomatized) mantle source of aillikites. Positive Nb and Ti anomalies suggest metasomatic alterations of the depleted lithosphere mantle by OIB melts under opening of the Tim back-arc basin. The aillikite dikes and carbonatites of the Dubravinsky complex could have been formed at different melting degrees of a single deep, lithospheric source, enriched in lithophile elements shortly before the melting episode, possibly in a suprasubduction setting about 2.1 Ga.