Formation of the Red Hills Ultramafic Massif during Subduction Initiation along an Oceanic Transform Fault

Abstract:

The Red Hills ultramafic massif in the South Island, New Zealand, is part of the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt (DMOB). The DMOB was created at the onset of subduction in a forearc setting in the Middle Permian, and it likely formed immediately prior to the establishment of a magmatic arc along the New Zealand and Australian portions of the Gondwanan margin. The Red Hills ultramafic massif records a two-stage history of high temperature mantle flow during subduction initiation along the Gondwanan margin. Initial deformation was homogeneous and fabrics are constrictional. Kilometer-scale deformation zones, part of the second stage of deformation, overprinted the early homogeneous fabric throughout the western portion of the massif. Timing of all high-temperature mantle deformation in the Red Hills was between 285 and 274 Ma during subduction initiation based on the earliest ages of igneous activity in adjacent volcanic rocks, and a new U-Pb zircon age of 274.55±0.43 Ma from a cross-cutting dike. We present a kinematic model to explain the occurrence of the constructional fabrics during subduction initiation, and find that the three-dimensional boundary conditions for deformation in the incipient mantle wedge must have been transtensional, with a dominant trench-parallel component of motion. Such a scenario indicates subduction likely initiated along an active oceanic transform fault. We test this model by kinematically restoring the Red Hills ultramafics to their Permian orientation, and find the consistent elongation direction of the constructional fabrics was oriented nearly parallel to the trench. Stage 2 deformation zones were variably oriented, but all accommodated normal motion. These results support a model where the incipient mantle wedge was undergoing highly oblique transtension, and the lack of evidence for contraction suggests the onset of subduction along the Permian margin of New Zealand occurred along a transform fault due to spontaneous, density driven processes.