The eye of Africa (Richat dome, Mauritania): An isolated Cretaceous alkaline-hydrothermal complex

The Richat dome is a spectacular circular structure located in the Mauritanian part of the Sahara Desert. The current erosion level of this igneous complex presents a wide variety of contrasting extrusive and intrusive rocks from shallow to deep source regions providing insight into the magmatic process at the origin of the complex. The Richat is the superposition of a bimodal tholeiitic suite crosscut by carbonatitic and kimberlitic magmatic rocks. The bimodal series is characterized by two concentric gabbroic ring dikes and two extrusive rhyolitic centers representing the remnant of two maar systems. Silica undersaturated magmas occur as carbonatite dikes, a kimberlite plug, and kimberlite sills extruded along the old regional anisotropies filling NNE-SSW dextral strike-slip faults and en-echelon tension gashes. An intense low-temperature hydrothermal event affected the Richat area. It is responsible, notably, for the karst-collapse central mega-breccia, the alteration of the rhyolites, the potassic alteration of the gabbros and the stable isotope enrichment in the carbonatites. A piston-like collapse is proposed to explain the contrast existing between the central and outer part of the Richat. Structural inheritance played an important role in the history of the Richat complex. Pre-existing anisotropies acted as a pathway for the ascent of asthenospheric and sub-continental melts and allowed the coexistence of alkaline and tholeiitic magmas within the same igneous complex. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.