Compilation of global Archean and Paleoproterozoic sanukitoid geochemical data

Sanukitoids, also referred to as high-Mg diorites, are a distinctive type of igneous rock from the late Archean-early Proterozoic, and are characterised by enrichment in both compatible elements (e.g. Mg, Ni, Cr) and incompatible elements (e.g. Ba, Sr, light rare earth elements). Their geochemistry is typically interpreted as recording petrogenesis of their parental magmas via interaction between mantle peridotite and recycled crust-derived component (e.g. metabasite melts, sediment melts, aqueous fluids), and is often considered to be "transitional" between that of Archean sodic tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) suites and post-Archean potassic granites.

This dataset presents a global compilation of all Archean-Paleoproterozoic rocks that have been described as "sanukitoid" in published literature, and consists of over 3600 individual samples. Whole rock major and trace element concentrations, radiogenic isotope compositions and stable isotope compositions are compiled in the dataset alongside reported magmatic ages of the samples. The dataset is provided both as an Excel workbook divided by craton (file: 2025-003_Spencer-et-al_Sanukitoid-Compilation.xlsx) and as a single CSV file (file: 2025-003_Spencer-et-al_Sanukitoid-Compilation.csv).

Sanukitoid magmatism has been described on almost every Archean craton globally. Most reported sanukitoid magmatism occurred during the late Mesoarchean-Neoarchean (2.95 - 2.5 Ga), with another peak in sanukitoid magmatism in the mid-Paleoproterozoic (2.2 - 2.0 Ga). Older sanukitoid occurrences dating back to the Paleoarchean (>3.2 Ga) are also described in the literature.