Causes of Layering
The causes of layering in large ultramafic intrusions include convection, thermal diffusion, settling of phenocrysts, assimilation of wall rocks and fractional crystallization.
The primary mechanism for forming cumulate layers is of course the accumulation of layers of mineral crystals on the floor or roof of the intrusion. Rarely, plagioclase is found in cumulate layers at the top of intrusions, having floated to the top of a much denser magma. Here it can form anorthosite layers.
Accumulation occurs as crystals are formed by fractional crystallisation and, if they are dense enough, precipitate out from the magma. In large enough and hot enough magma chambers, where vigorous convection currents form, pseudo-sedimentary structures such as flow banding, graded bedding, scour channels, foreset beds and other usually sedimentary features can be created by convection and settling processes. The Skaergaard intrusion in Greenland is a prime example of these quasi-sedimentary structures.
Whilst fractional crystallisation is the dominant process, it can be triggered in the magma body by assimilation of the wall rocks. This will tend to increase the silica content of the melt, which will eventually prompt a mineral to reach the liquidus for that magma composition. Note also that assimilation of wall rocks takes considerable thermal energy, so this process goes hand in hand with the natural cooling of the magma body. Often, assimilation can only be proven by detailed geochemistry.
Often, cumulate layers are polyminerallic, forming gabbro, norite and other rock types. The terminology of cumulate rocks, however, is usually used to describe the individual layers as, for instance pyroxene-plagioclase cumulates.
Monominerallic cumulate layers are common. These may be economically important, for instance magnetite and ilmenite layers are known to form titanium, vanadium deposits such as at Windimurra intrusion and hard-rock iron deposits (such as at Savage River, Tasmania). Chromite layers are associated with platinum-palladium group element (PGE) deposits, the most famous of these being the Merensky Reef in the Bushveld Igneous Complex.
The central section or upper sections of many large ultramafic intrusions are poorly layered, massive gabbro. This is because as the magma differentiates it reaches a composition favouring crystallisation of only two or three minerals; the magma may also have cooled by this stage sufficiently for the increasing viscosity of the magma to halt effective convection, or convection may stop or break up into inefficient small cells because the revervoir becomes too thin and flat.
Read more about this topic: Layered Intrusion