Apatite in the Sokli carbonatite complex, Finland

Apatite is a ubiquitous mineral in plutonic carbonatites (magmatic carbonate-rich rocks) and associated rock types (Chakhmouradian et al., 2017). Carbonatites are enriched in incompatible elements such as P and rare earth elements (REE), which are accommodated into apatite structure among many other elements (e.g., Hughes and Rakovan, 2015), making apatite a suitable tracer for changes in magmatic-hydrothermal geochemistry.

Sokli carbonatite complex, located in eastern Lapland, Finland, is the westernmost intrusion of the Kola Alkaline Province (Vartiainen, 1980 and references therein). The Sokli complex encompasses multiple generations of carbonatite magmatism, which compositionally span from calcite carbonatite to dolomite carbonatite to late-stage Ba, Sr, REE-enriched dolomite-rich veins. Carbonatites are associated with several generations of phoscorites, exotic magnetite-apatite cumulates typically found in carbonatite complexes. Apatite is present in most rock types in the complex, from an accessory to a rock-forming mineral.

The Sokli complex has been studied for decades (O’Brien and Hyvönen, 2015), but the composition and role of magmatic apatite has not been discussed in detail outside of phosphorous mineralization studies. Previous studies indicate that with progressive fractionation the concentrations of Ba, Sr, REE, and F increase in whole-rock and mineral compositions (O’Brien and Hyvönen, 2015 and references therein). Questions that still remain open include whether apatite has recorded the proposed different magmatic and metasomatic stages and if apatite chemistry could provide arguments for the proposed liquid immiscibility relationship between carbonatites and phoscorites (Lee et al., 2004).

A variety of apatite-bearing rock types from the Sokli complex were sampled. The composition of apatite will be studied in situ for major and trace elements with electron microprobe analyzer (EPMA) and laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), respectively.

References cited:

Chakhmouradian, A.R., Reguir, E.P., Zaitsev, A.N., Couëslan, C., Xu, C., Kynický, J., Mumin, A.H., Yang, P., 2017. Apatite in carbonatitic rocks: Compositional variation, zoning, element partitioning and petrogenetic significance. Lithos 274–275, 188–213.

Hughes, J. M., Rakovan, J. F. 2015. Structurally robust, chemically diverse: apatite and apatite supergroup minerals. Elements 11, 165–170.

Vartiainen, H., 1980. The petrography, mineralogy and petrochemistry of the Sokli carbonatite massif northern Finland. Geological Survey of Finland, Bulletin 313.

O’Brien, H., E. Hyvönen. 2015. The Sokli carbonatite complex in Maier, W.D., Lahtinen, R., O’Brien, Hugh (Eds.), Mineral Deposits of Finland. Elsevier. 305–325.

Lee, M.J., Garcia, D., Moutte, J., et al., 2004. Carbonatites and phoscorites from the Sokli complex, Finland. In: Wall, F., Zaitsev, A.N. (Eds.), Phoscorites and Carbonatites from Mantle to Mine: The Key Example of the Kola Alkaline Province. The Mineralogical Society of Britain and Ireland, London, 133–162.