Author name: Edmond A. Mathez

Millimeter–centimeter thick layers of chromite-rich rock (chromitites) are rare, but ubiquitous, features of the Bushveld (South Africa) and Rum (Scotland) layered intrusions. Despite their meager dimensions, the chromitites provide insight into processes that modify igneous layering and, in the Bushveld, the formation of the platinum-group element–rich Merensky Reef. The Merensky Reef chromitites represent reaction zones formed in a compositional gradient between hydrous silicate melt and a crystalline cumulate assemblage, analogous to reaction zones in metamorphic systems. At Rum, the chromitites formed at the melting front between newly injected magma and the magma chamber floor, an analogous process but one driven by thermal, rather than chemical, energy.