ALBERT

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉The magmatic processes responsible for accretion of the lower oceanic crust remain one of the least-constrained components of the global seafloor spreading system. Samples of gabbroic rocks recovered by scientific ocean drilling are too limited to allow effective assessment of spatial variations in magmatic flow within in situ lower crust. Extensive exposures of gabbros in ophiolites, on the other hand, provide opportunities to study accretion processes in three dimensions across wide areas and at a resolution that allows variations in magmatic fabrics through the crust to be quantified. Here, we show that magnetic anisotropy provides a reliable proxy for lower-crustal magmatic fabrics in the world’s largest ophiolite in Oman. Important differences in magnetic fabrics are detected that reflect variations in magmatic processes on a range of scales. Fabrics in layered gabbros are aligned with modal layering and display a consistency in the orientation of maximum principal axes of anisotropy between localities at a regional scale. These fabrics are compatible with subhorizontal preferred alignment of crystals orthogonal to the inferred orientation of the Oman spreading axis, resulting from magmatic flow or deformation of melt-rich crystal mushes during spreading. In contrast, magnetic anisotropy in foliated gabbros at the top of the lower crust reveals for the first time distinctly different linear and anastomosing fabric styles between localities sampled at the same pseudostratigraphic level. These differences reflect spatial variations in the style and trajectory of flow in the crystal mush beneath the axial melt lens during upward melt migration at the spreading axis.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉The magmatic processes responsible for accretion of the lower oceanic crust remain one of the least-constrained components of the global seafloor spreading system. Samples of gabbroic rocks recovered by scientific ocean drilling are too limited to allow effective assessment of spatial variations in magmatic flow within in situ lower crust. Extensive exposures of gabbros in ophiolites, on the other hand, provide opportunities to study accretion processes in three dimensions across wide areas and at a resolution that allows variations in magmatic fabrics through the crust to be quantified. Here, we show that magnetic anisotropy provides a reliable proxy for lower-crustal magmatic fabrics in the world’s largest ophiolite in Oman. Important differences in magnetic fabrics are detected that reflect variations in magmatic processes on a range of scales. Fabrics in layered gabbros are aligned with modal layering and display a consistency in the orientation of maximum principal axes of anisotropy between localities at a regional scale. These fabrics are compatible with subhorizontal preferred alignment of crystals orthogonal to the inferred orientation of the Oman spreading axis, resulting from magmatic flow or deformation of melt-rich crystal mushes during spreading. In contrast, magnetic anisotropy in foliated gabbros at the top of the lower crust reveals for the first time distinctly different linear and anastomosing fabric styles between localities sampled at the same pseudostratigraphic level. These differences reflect spatial variations in the style and trajectory of flow in the crystal mush beneath the axial melt lens during upward melt migration at the spreading axis.〈/span〉

Description: The Oman ophiolite provides a natural laboratory for understanding oceanic lithospheric processes. Previous paleomagnetic and structural investigations have been used to support a model involving rotation of the ophiolite during formation at a mid-oceanic microplate. However, recent geochemical evidence indicates that the ophiolite instead formed in a nascent forearc environment, opening the potential for alternative rotation mechanisms. Central to the conundrum is the contrast between ESE to SE magnetizations and NNW magnetizations from the northern and southern ophiolitic massifs, respectively, attributed previously to either differential tectonic rotations during spreading or complete emplacement-related remagnetization of the southern massifs. Here we report new paleomagnetic data from lower crustal rocks of the southern massifs that resolve this problem. Sampling of a continuous section in Wadi Abyad reveals ENE magnetizations in the dike rooting zone at the top of the lower crust that change systematically downwards to NNW directions in underlying foliated and layered gabbros. This is consistent only with remagnetization from the base upwards, replacing early remanences in layered and foliated gabbros completely but preserving original ENE magnetizations at higher levels. Comparison with new data from Wadi Khafifah provides a positive fold test that shows that this event occurred before late Campanian structural disruption of the regional orientation of the petrologic Moho. These data show that the entire ophiolite experienced large intraoceanic clockwise rotation prior to partial remagnetization, leading to a new tectonic model in which formation, rotation, and emplacement of the ophiolite are all linked to Late Cretaceous motion of Arabia and roll-back of the Oman subduction zone.