Geochemistry of Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the Faroe Islands with a focus on their ultra-trace contents of Hg

• Main Authors: Šišková, P., Krmíček, L. (Lukáš), Coufalík, P. (Pavel)
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Faroe Islands; tholeiitic basalt; mercury content; continental crust; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0262704

We focused our study on determination of ultra-trace mercury contents (by means of atomic absorption spectrometry) in volcanic rocks from the North Atlantic Igneous Province to test the hypothesis about the presence of continental metamorphic basement beneath the Faroe Islands. The results of combined optical microscopy, electron microprobe and whole-rock chemical study revealed that the studied volcanites are fine grained and aphyric to feldspar-phyric tholeiitic basalts with primary phenocrysts or microphenocrysts of plagioclase and pyroxene ± olivine in a matrix composed of tiny plagioclase laths ± tachylyte in various stages of alteration. Contents of Hg show great variability between samples even within the same formation. We presume that elevated concentrations of Hg in some samples are related to stagnation of individual pulses of parent magma in the continental crust below the Faroe Islands.