Consistent patterns of rare earth element distribution in accessory minerals from rocks of mafic-ultramafic complexes

Abstract

This paper summarizes analytical data accumulated in the world literature and other materials about the regularities of the REE distribution in minerals contained in ultramafic and mafic rocks as accessory phases. These minerals are tentatively divided into two groups. The first includes garnets, zircons, apatites and perovskites, which can accumulate increased amounts of REE in their structure. The second consists of minerals whose structure can accumulate only limited contents of these trace elements. These are chrome-spinels, ilmenites, and micas. These minerals, in respect of REE geochemistry, are studied to a varying degree because of the different levels of accumulations of these elements, different degrees of occurrence in rocks, tiny sizes of their grains and other reasons. The analytical database formed on their basis includes about 600 original analyses. The overwhelming majority of presently available data on REE geochemistry in accessory minerals from ultramafic and mafic rocks have been published only in the recent 15 years. The studies became possible due to the development and introduction of new highly sensible microprobe analyses allowing detection of REE and many other trace elements in minerals grains directly in thin sections. The greatest numbers of these analyses were performed for garnets and zircons, fewer for apatites, and the fewest for chrome-spinels, ilmenites, micas, and perovskites. In general, the regularities of REE distribution in these minerals from ultramafic and mafic rocks are less studied compared to the rock-forming minerals from ultramafic and mafic rocks. Among the analytical methods, which were used to study the REE composition of accessory minerals, the most efficient was the mass-spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS).