Publication Date:
2017-05-18
Description:
We present new whole-rock major, trace, and platinum group element (PGE) and mineral chemistry data from the Kalaymyo peridotite massif in the central part of the Indo-Myanmar Ranges (western Myanmar) and discuss its mantle melt evolution. The Kalaymyo peridotites consist mainly of harzburgites, which show typical porphyroclastic or coarse-grained equigranular textures. They are composed of olivine (forsterite, Fo = 89.8–90.5), orthopyroxene (enstatite, En86–91, wollastonite, Wo1–4, ferrosilite, Fs8–10; Mg# = 89.6–91.9), clinopyroxene (En46–49Wo47–50Fs3–5; Mg# = 90.9–93.6), and spinel (Mg# = 67.1–78.9; Cr# = 13.5–31.5), and have relatively homogeneous whole-rock compositions with Mg#s of 90.1–90.8 and SiO2 (41.5–43.65 wt%), Al2O3 (1.66–2.66 wt%), and CaO (1.45–2.67 wt%) contents. They display light rare earth element (LREE)–depleted chondrite-normalized (CN) REE patterns with (La/Yb)CN = 0.04–0.21 and (Gd/Yb)CN = 0.40–0.84, and show a slight enrichment from Pr to La with (La/Pr)CN in the range of 0.98–2.36. The Kalaymyo peridotites are characterized by Pd-enriched chondrite-normalized PGE patterns with superchondritic (Pd/Ir)CN ratios (1.15–2.36). Their calculated oxygen fugacities range between the quartz-fayalite-magnetite (QFM) oxygen buffers, QFM–0.57 and QFM+0.90. These mineralogical and geochemical features collectively suggest that the Kalaymyo peridotites represent residual upper mantle rocks after low to moderate degrees (5%–15%) of partial melting at a mid-oceanic ridge environment. The observed enrichment in LREE and Pd was a result of their reactions with enriched mid-oceanic ridge basalt–like melts percolating through these already depleted residual peridotites. The Kalaymyo and other ophiolites in the Indo-Myanmar Ranges therefore represent mid-oceanic ridge–type Tethyan oceanic lithosphere derived from a downgoing plate and accreted into a westward-migrating subduction-accretion system along the eastern margin of India.
Print ISSN:
1941-8264
Electronic ISSN:
1947-4253
Topics:
Geosciences
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