ALBERT

Description: During ODP Leg 107, the basement of the Tyrrhenian Sea was drilled at Site 650, located in the Marsili basin, and at Sites 651 and 655, both located in the Vavilov basin. In addition, a lava flow was drilled at Site 654 on the Sardinia rifted margin. Mineral and whole rock major and trace element chemistry, including rare earth element (REE) and Sr and Nd isotopic ratios, were determined in samples of these rocks. Site 654 lava was sampled within uppermost Pliocene postrift sediments. This lava is a basaltic andesite of intraplate affinity, and is analogous to some Plio-Pleistocene tholeiitic lavas from Sardinia. Site 650 basalts, drilled beneath 1.7-1.9-Ma-old basal sediment, are strongly altered and vesicular suggesting a rapid subsidence of the Marsili basin. Based on incompatible trace elements, these basalts show calc-alkaline affinity like some products of the Marsili Seamount and the Eolian arc. The basement of the two sites drilled within Vavilov basin shows contrasting petrologies. Site 655, located along the Gortani ridge in the western part of the basin, drilled a 116-m-thick sequence of basalt flows beneath 3.4-3.6-Ma-old basal sediments. These basalts are chemically relatively homogeneous and show affinity to transitional MORB. Four units consisting of slightly differentiated basaltic lavas, have been identified. Site 655 basalts are geochemically similar to the high Ti lavas from DSDP Leg 42, Site 373 (Vavilov Basin). The basement at Site 651, overlain by 40 m of metalliferous dolostone covered by fossiliferous sediments with an age of 2 Ma, consists of two basalt units separated by a dolerite-albitite intrusive body; serpentinized harzburgites were drilled for 30 m at the base of the hole. The two basalt units of Site 651 are distinct petrochemically, though both show incompatible elements affinity with high-K calc-alkaline/calc-alkaline magmas from Eolian arc. The cpx chemistry and high K/Na ratio of the lower unit lavas suggest a weak alkaline tendency of potassic lineage. Leg 107 basement rock data, together with data from DSDP Site 373 and from dredged samples, indicate that the deepest basins of the central Tyrrhenian Sea are underlain by a complex back-arc basin crust produced by magmas with incompatible element affinities to transitional MORB (Site 655 and DSDP Site 373), and to calc-alkaline and high-K calc-alkaline converging plate margin basalts (Sites 650 and 651). This petrogenetic complexity is in accordance with the back-arc setting of the Vavilov and Marsili basins. Other back-arc basin basalts, particularly those from ensialic basins such as the Bransfield Strait (Antarctica), show a comparable petrogenetic complexity (cf., Sounders and Tarney, 1984).