Postcratonization mafic and ultramafic dykes of the Yilgarn Block

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Abstract
Postcratonization intrusions in the Yilgarn Block of Western Australia are predominantly dykes with high length/width ratios and sharp contacts with minimal thermal metamorphism of country rock. Dyke frequency and number of relative age relationships increase towards the exposed margins of the Yilgarn Block. Dykes in the northern, southern and western margins of the Yilgarn Block are mafic, ranging from gabbro to magnetite‐rich leucodolerite, and have apparently been intruded over a long time interval in response to periodic reactivation of the tectonically active craton margins. Dykes in the central Yilgarn Block range from porphyritic olivine picrite to magnetite‐rich quartz dolerite and display a spectrum of chemical compositions with an overall trend of tholeiitic iron‐enrichment. The concentration of both Archaean and Proterozoic rocks of high‐Mg nature in the central Yilgarn Block is suggestive of a fundamental control, perhaps in the mantle source area, and also indicates that ultramafic magmas were generated in the area over an extensive time interval. Dykes in the central Yilgarn Block were emplaced in tensional fractures from the Late Archaean until the culmination of a major marginal crust‐forming event at about 2000 Ma. On the basis of the limited data available, the dykes are similar to poststabilization swarms in other cratonic nucleii.