On the relationships between the Bushveld Complex and its felsic roof rocks, part 1: petrogenesis of Rooiberg and related felsites

A major question concerning the Bushveld Complex is the relationship between the layered mafic rocks and the overlying Rooiberg Group felsites and related granophyres. Here, we assemble bulk-rock analyses to gain insight into this question and investigate the petrogenesis of the felsic rocks. The data indicate that the Rooiberg Group consists of distinctive magnesian and ferroan lavas. The former dominates the basalts to rhyolites of the basal Dullstroom Formation, while nearly all the dacites to rhyolites of the overlying Damwal, Kwaggasnek, and Schrikkloof Formations are ferroan. The ferroan rocks also include the Stavoren Granophyre, which exists regionally as a several-hundred-meter-thick concordant sheet between the Bushveld Complex and Rooiberg lavas. The compositions of the magnesian lavas are similar to calc-alkaline granitoids found in convergent margins, suggesting that the lavas could have originated in a mantle affected by previous Archean subduction events that are recorded by xenoliths and inclusions in diamonds from most Kaapvaal kimberlites. In contrast, the compositions of the ferroan lavas indicate formation by fractional crystallization of basaltic liquids and are essentially identical to ferroan rhyolites associated with mafic rocks from other settings. The hypothesis that these rocks are fractional crystallization products of Bushveld mafic liquids is consistent with published radiogenic and stable isotope data and known age relations. Based on compositional characteristics and geologic relations, the Stavoren Granophyre is the most likely candidate for the residual liquid that escaped from the top of the Bushveld Complex. Whether the bulk of the Bushveld Province ferroan rhyolites formed in the chamber of the extant layered mafic sequence or in a deeper, hidden crustal magma reservoir remains unclear.