ALBERT

Notes: Abstract Megacrysts of titanian pyrope, high-Ti bronzite, sub-calcic diopside to augite, and phlogopite in an alnöitic breccia, Malaita, Solomon Islands, have compositional features which distinguish them from silicates in kimberlites. Particularly important is the high content of Al2O3 in the Malaita silicates, which may reflect the higher Al2O3 content of alnöite than kimberlite. The phlogopite megacrysts fall into two populations, one richer in Mg and Cr, and lower in Ti, than the other. The pyroxenes may also fall into two groups characterized by high and low Mg, Cr and Ni. Two stages of crystallization may be responsible.

Notes: Abstract The temperature dependence of the Mn-Mg distribution between garnet and clinopyroxene, originally proposed by Carswell, was confirmed by Shimizu and Allègre (1978) using ion microprobe and electron microprobe data. High precision electron microprobe analyses of a larger set of 52 Iherzolites from S. Africa and Malaita, Solomon Islands show considerable scatter in the temperature dependence of this distribution, and correlation with the CaO content of the garnet is indicated. A new distribution coefficient is based on the reaction: $$\begin{gathered} \operatorname{Mn} _{\text{2}} \operatorname{Si} _2 \operatorname{O} _6 {\text{ + }}\operatorname{CaAl} _{2/3} \operatorname{SiO} _4 {\text{ + }}\operatorname{MgAl} _{2/3} \operatorname{SiO} _4 \hfill \\ {\text{Mn - pyroxene grossular pyrope}} \hfill \\ {\text{ }} \rightleftharpoons \operatorname{CaMgSi} _2 \operatorname{O} _6 {\text{ + }}2\operatorname{MnAl} _{2/3} \operatorname{SiO} _4 \hfill \\ {\text{ diopside spessartine}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ It was calibrated against temperature determined from two independent thermometers (Wells pyroxene and O'Neill-Wood garnet-olivine) for Iherzolitic assemblages, and shown to to be sensitive to within + 50 °C for most specimens in the range 900 °– 1,300 ° C. This distribution coefficient appears independent of pressure within the uncertainty of the available data, and has the potential to be a third independent thermometer for use in garnet Iherzolites and possibly eclogites.

Notes: Abstract Clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and garnet megacrysts show consistent increase of Na and Ti, and decrease of Cr, with increasing Fe/Mg. Three groups of clinopyroxenes occur with increasing Fe/Mg: subcalcic diopside, lamellar intergrowth with ilmenite, and augite. Chemical relationships indicate simultaneous crystallization of garnet, orthopyroxene and sub-calcic diopside megacrysts, and pyroxene thermometry-barometry indicates a trend from 29 kb−1,230 ° C to 25 kb−1,080 ° C as crystallization proceeded to higher Fe/Mg. Ilmenite-pyroxene thermometry suggests a mean of 965 ° C for crystallization of the intergrowths, but calibration depends on crystal-chemical assumptions. Lherzolite assemblages fall into three groups: two garnet-bearing types which equilibrated at 31 kb−1,150 ° C and 22 kb−900 ° C, and a type bearing Al-rich spinel which probably crystallized below 20 kb. The minerals from the lherzolites have lower Fe/Mg than the megacrysts. The simplest model involves: (i) metamorphic equilibration of lherzolitic rocks to the local geotherm, (ii) local melting of lherzolite at P 〉 30 kb, (iii) sequential crystallization of megacrysts as the magma rose intermittently, (iv) generation of alnöitic magma at P 〉 32 kb, and (v) eruption to surface with transport of megacrysts and lherzolitic xenoliths. Garnet, olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene in these Malaita xenoliths have lower Na, Ti, and P relative to their equivalents from southern African kimberlites. Only clinopyroxene contains K (up to 270 ppmw), and no Na was found in olivine.

Notes: Abstract During July and August 1991, the French-American Blanconaute dive program used the French submersibleNautile to investigate the West Blanco Depression (WBD), a deep, elongate trough located at the intersection of the Blanco Transform Fault Zone with the southern Juan de Fuca Ridge (JdFR). Twenty dives were carried out along the north wall of the WBD, which exposes the upper oceanic crust over a 65 km distance, from the JdFR axis (to the west) to the oblique trace of an ancient propagator (to the east, crustal age around 2 Ma). Thirteen of these dives were precisely located within a 13 × 7 km zone of the north wall, covered by a high-resolution sonar mapping operation during the Blancotrough cruise in 1987. This series of geological traverses, plus 4 dives across the south wall of the WBD (one dive) and the adjacent Parks Plateau (3 dives), collected 242 rock samples. We report here the main results of the dive program and preliminary laboratory studies: 1. Transform-related tectonic activity has recently abandoned the southern margin of Parks Plateau, and is presently located inside the WBD area, mainly along its northern wall. The tectonic features observed are compatible with a right-lateral strike-slip system, with a NE-SW extensional component. 2. Three main lithological units are exposed along the north wall of the WBD. From top to bottom, they are: (1) a Volcanic Unit, forming a steep upper cliff, made of massive and pillow flows and basaltic dikes, with an estimated average thickness of 800 m; (2) a less steep Transition Zone, about 150 to 400 m thick, largely masked by rubble but exposing both diabase outcrops and pillow flows; and (3) a massive Diabase Unit, exposed over 700–800 m, with a dike complex structure visible from place to place, and cut by a net of hydrothermal veins. Deep crustal rocks such as gabbros were not observed. 3. Spectacular mass-wasting features are visible all along the north wall of the WBD. About 60% of the face of the wall is masked by talus cones, rubble, rock avalanche deposits and slide blocks. Three main landslides, of approximately one km3 in volume each, were tentatively identified. One of them was mapped in detail and consists of an approximately 300 m thick (0.85 km3), coherent slide block detached from a zone where intense hydrothermal alteration and faulting have obviously weakened the bedrock, that is in places entirely altered to blue clays. 4. The basaltic lavas of the WBD north wall show a remarkable evolution with time, from east to west. Around the tip of the ancient propagator, they are restricted to primitive, olivine-rich picritic basalts. Proceeding westward, they exhibit a wide range of differentiation, including highly fractionated, FeTi-rich ferrobasalts at about 35–45 km from the JdFR axis. When approaching the JdFR axis, the FeTi enrichment decreases gradually, and the ferrobasalts evolve towards slightly differentiated MORB-type basalts, typical of the southern JdFR. This magmatic evolution marks the transition from the end of a propagating rift regime to a steady-state accretion regime. 5. The WBD north wall also permits the study of weathering and hydrothermal alteration processes and their evolution in space and time. Vertically, the alteration products evolve from oceanic weathering and zeolite facies (Volcanic Unit) to the greenschist facies (Transition Zone and Diabase Unit). Horizontally, the evolution with time is mainly a general hydration of the crust that is, however, very irregularly distributed. 6. Several vertical magnetic traverses along the north wall of the WBD, using a bottom magnetometer attached to the basket of the submersible, have shown a sharp 5000 to 7000 nT positive anomaly at about 3500 m depth. This anomaly corresponds exactly to the first appearance of extrusive pillow-lava outcrops, and confirms the dramatic decrease in magnetic anomaly amplitude below that depth, detected during the Blancotrough cruise in 1987. The vertical magnetic profiles thus appear to have imaged the base of the magnetic source layer.