Evidence of melting, melt percolation and deformation in a supra-subduction zone (Marum ophiolite complex - Papua New Guinea)

Abstract:

New geochemical and microstructural data from the Marum ophiolite in Papua New Guinea describe a piece of most depleted mantle made essentially of dunite and harzburgite showing compositions of supra-subduction zone (SSZ) peridotite. Strong olivine crystallographic preferred orientations (CPO) in dunite and harzburgite inferred the activation of both (001)[100] and (010)[100] slip systems. Clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene CPOs inferred the activation of (100)[001] and (010)[001] slip systems. This plastic deformation is interpreted to have developed at high temperature during the formation of the Marum ophiolite, prior to melt percolation. The orientation of the foliation and olivine [100] slip directions sub-parallel to the subduction zone indicates that mantle flow was parallel to the trench pointing a fast polarization direction parallel to the arc.

Marum depleted mantle has been fertilised by diffuse crystallisation of a low proportion of clinopyroxene (1-2%) in the dunite and formation of cm-scale ol-clinopyroxenite and ol-websterite veins cross-cutting the foliation. This percolating melt shows silica-rich magnesian affinities (boninite-like) related to supra-subduction zone in a young fore-arc environment. The peridotite has also been percolated by a melt with more tholeiite affinities precipitating plagioclase-rich wehrlite and thin gabbroic veins; these are interpreted to form after the boninitic event. The small proportion of newly crystallized pyroxene distributed in the dunite shows similar orientation of crystallographic axes to the host dunite (<100>_ol parallel to <001>_cpx-opx). In contrast, the pyroxenes in ol-clinopyroxenite, ol-websterite and the thin gabbroic veins in the wehrlite, record their own orientation with <001> axes at 45 to 60˚ to olivine <100> axes. For low melt proportion, such as crystallization of pyroxenes in the dunite, the crystallization is governed by epitaxial growth, and when the proportion of melt is higher the newly formed minerals record syn-kinematic crystallization. This switch of crystallographic axes orientation of newly formed minerals indicates a reorientation of the constraints during the boninitic and tholeiitic melts event probably due to lateral mantle flow within the fore-arc area.