Composition of melts and minerals from volcanic rocks of the Kuril-Kamchatka Arc

In this paper allivalites, coarse- and giant-textured olivine-anorthite rocks occurring as separate blocks in the eruption products of many volcanoes from the frontal part of the Kuril-Kamchatka Arc are under consideration. New data are reported on petrography, mineralogy, and composition of melt inclusions in minerals from ten allivalite samples collected at Ksudach, Ilinsky, Zavaritsky, Kudryavy, and Golovnin Volcanoes. Crystallization temperatures of allivalite minerals were estimated as 970-1080°C at melt water content of 3.0-3.5 wt % and oxygen fugacity NNO=1-2. Genetic connection was established between compositions of melt inclusions and interstitial glasses in allivalites and volcanic rocks. Cumulate nature of allivalites was demonstrated. Using mass balance calculations, degree of fractionation of primary melts during formation of cumulate layers was estimated for various volcanoes as 22-46%.

Geochemistry of volcanic rocks from the Hikurangi and Manihiki Plateaus

Here we present the first radiometric age data and a comprehensive geochemical data set (including major and trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope ratios) for samples from the Hikurangi Plateau basement and seamounts on and adjacent to the plateau obtained during the R/V Sonne 168 cruise, in addition to age and geochemical data from DSDP Site 317 on the Manihiki Plateau. The 40Ar/39Ar age and geochemical data show that the Hikurangi basement lavas (118-96 Ma) have surprisingly similar major and trace element and isotopic characteristics to the Ontong Java Plateau lavas (ca. 120 and 90 Ma), primarily the Kwaimbaita-type composition, whereas the Manihiki DSDP Site 317 lavas (117 Ma) have similar compositions to the Singgalo lavas on the Ontong Java Plateau. Alkalic, incompatible-element-enriched seamount lavas (99-87 Ma and 67 Ma) on the Hikurangi Plateau and adjacent to it (Kiore Seamount), however, were derived from a distinct high time-integrated U/Pb (HIMU)-type mantle source. The seamount lavas are similar in composition to similar-aged alkalic volcanism on New Zealand, indicating a second wide-spread event from a distinct source beginning ca. 20 Ma after the plateau-forming event. Tholeiitic lavas from two Osbourn seamounts on the abyssal plain adjacent to the northeast Hikurangi Plateau margin have extremely depleted incompatible element compositions, but incompatible element characteristics similar to the Hikurangi and Ontong Java Plateau lavas and enriched isotopic compositions intermediate between normal mid-ocean-ridge basalt (N-MORB) and the plateau basement. These younger (~52 Ma) seamounts may have formed through remelting of mafic cumulate rocks associated with the plateau formation. The similarity in age and geochemistry of the Hikurangi, Ontong Java and Manihiki Plateaus suggest derivation from a common mantle source. We propose that the Greater Ontong Java Event, during which ?1% of the Earth's surface was covered with volcanism, resulted from a thermo-chemical superplume/dome that stalled at the transition zone, similar to but larger than the structure imaged presently beneath the South Pacific superswell. The later alkalic volcanism on the Hikurangi Plateau and the Zealandia micro-continent may have been part of a second large-scale volcanic event that may have also triggered the final breakup stage of Gondwana, which resulted in the separation of Zealandia fragments from West Antarctica.

Geochemistry of Pleistocene volcanic rocks in the Mariana Forearc

Geophysical surveys of the Mariana forearc, in an area equidistant from the Mariana Trench and the active Mariana Island Arc, revealed a 40-m-deep graben about 13 km northwest of Conical Seamount, a serpentine mud volcano. The graben and its bounding horst blocks are part of a fault zone that strikes northwest-southeast beneath Conical Seamount. One horst block was drilled during Leg 125 of the Ocean Drilling Program (Site 781). Three lithologic units were recovered at Site 781: an upper sedimentary unit, a middle basalt unit, and a lower sedimentary unit. The upper unit, between 0 and 72 mbsf, consists of upper Pliocene to Holocene diatomaceous and radiolarian-bearing silty clay that grades down into vitric silty clay and vitric clayey silt. The middle unit is a Pleistocene vesicular, porphyritic basalt, the top of which corresponds to a high-amplitude reflection on the reflection profiles. The lower unit is a middle to upper (and possibly some lower) Pliocene vitric silty clay and vitric clayey silt similar to the lower part of the upper unit. The thickness of the basalt unit can only be estimated to be between 13 and 25 m because of poor core recovery (28% to 55%). The absence of internal flow structures and the presence of an upper glassy chilled zone and a lower, fine-grained margin suggest that the basalt unit is either a single lava flow or a near-surface sill. The basalt consists of plagioclase phenocrysts with subordinate augite and olivine phenocrysts and of plagioclase-augite-olivine glomerocrysts in a groundmass of plagioclase, augite, olivine, and glass. The basalt is an island arc tholeiite enriched in large-ion-lithophile elements relative to high-field-strength elements, similar to the submarine lavas of the southern arc seamounts. In contrast, volcanic rocks from the active volcanoes on Pagan and Agrigan islands, 100 km to the west of the drill site, are calc-alkaline. The basalt layer, the youngest in-situ igneous layer reported from the Izu-Bonin and Mariana forearcs, is enigmatic because of its location more than 100 km from the active volcanic arc. The sediment layers above and below the basalt unit are late Pliocene in age (about 2.5 Ma) and normally magnetized. The basalt has schlierenlike structures, reverse magnetization, and a K-Ar age of 1.68±0.37 Ma. Thus, the basalt layer is probably a sill fed by magma intruded along a fault zone bounding the horst and graben in the forearc. The geochemistry of the basalt is consistent with a magma source similar to that of the active island arc and from a mantle source above the subducting Pacific plate.

Composition and crystal parameters of carbonate-apatites from animal teeth and bones and from phosphate rocks of the ocean bottom

Samples of recent to Miocene fish and marine mammal bones from the bottom of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Miocene Maikop deposits (Transcaspian region) are studied by X-ray diffraction technique combined with chemical and energy-dispersive analyses. Changes of lattice parameters and chemical composition of bioapatite during fossilization and diagenesis suggest that development of skeletal apatite proceeds from dahllite-type hydroxyapatite to francolite-type carbonate-fluorapatite. It is assumed that jump-type transition from dahllite to francolite during initial fossilization reflects replacement of biogeochemical reactions in living organisms, which are subject to nonlinear laws of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, by physicochemical processes according to the linear equilibrium thermodynamics.

(Table 1) Magnetic susceptibility readings in the western part of the Sør Rondane Montains

The Sør Rondane Mountains (SRM) in eastern Dronning Maud Land (DML) are located in an area, where two apparent Pan-African (650-520 Ma) orogenic mobile belts appear to intersect, the East African-Antarctic Orogen and the Kuunga Orogen. Hence, a better understanding of the tectonic structure of the Sør Rondane region is an important key for unravelling the complex geodynamic evolution of the eastern DML and adjacent regions of East Antarctica during the Late Neoproterozoic/Early Palaeozoic amalgamation of Gondwana. The SRM were recently (2011-2012) aerogeophysically investigated with a 5 km flight line spacing, covering a total area of ~140,000 km². The aeromagnetic data are correlated with ground-based magnetic susceptibility measurements and geological field data and allow to project tectonic terranes and individual structures into ice-covered areas. Magnetic anomalies and basement foliation trends are collinear in areas dominated by simple shear deformation, whereas an area of large-scale refolding correlates with a subdued small-scale broken magnetic anomaly pattern. The latter area can be regarded as a distinct tectonic domain, the central Sør Rondane corridor. It magnetically separates the SRM into an eastern, a central, and a western portion. This subdivision is presumably related to late Pan-African extensional tectonics and suggests that such a tectonic regime may play a larger role than previously assumed. Voluminous late Pan-African granitoids, which are mainly undeformed, correlate with positive magnetic anomalies between +30 and +80 nT, while a strong magnetic high (+680 nT) near the granitic intrusion at Dufekfjellet is caused by a highly magnetised enigmatic body. The recently discovered prominent magnetic anomaly province of southeastern DML continues into the southern part of the Sør Rondane region, where only a few outcrops are exposed. Findings at these westernmost nunataks of the SRM indicate that the subdued magnetic anomaly pattern of this southeastern DML province is most likely caused by the predominance of metasedimentary rocks of yet unknown age.

Isotope ratios of smectites, calcites and whole rocks from DSDP Legs 51 and 52, Atlantic Ocean

Delta180 and 87Sr/86Sr isotopic data from smectites, calcites, and whole rocks, together with published isotopic age determinations, alkali element concentration data and petrographic observations suggest a sequential model of ocean floor alteration. The early stage lasts about 3 m.y. and is characterized by palagonite and smectite formation, and solutions with a large basaltic component, increasing with temperature which varies from 15° to 80° C at DSDP site 418A. Most carbonates are deposited after this stage from solutions with a negligible basaltic Sr component and temperatures of 15° to 40° C. Water of seawater Sr and O isotopic composition is shown to percolate to at least 500 m into the basaltic basement. No evidence was found for continuing exchange of strontium or oxygen after 3 m.y.

Geochemistry of basaltic rocks from ODP Hole 183-1137A on the Kerguelen Plateau

Cretaceous basalts recovered during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 183 at Site 1137 on the Kerguelen Plateau show remarkable geochemical similarities to Cretaceous continental tholeiites located on the continental margins of eastern India (Rajmahal Traps) and southwestern Australia (Bunbury basalt). Major and trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions of the Site 1137 basalts are consistent with assimilation of Gondwanan continental crust (from 5 to 7%) by Kerguelen plume-derived magmas. In light of the requirement for crustal contamination of the Kerguelen Plateau basalts, we re-examine the early tectonic environment of the initial Kerguelen plume head. Although a causal role of the Kerguelen plume in the breakup of Eastern Gondwana cannot be ascertained, we demonstrate the need for the presence of the Kerguelen plume early during continental rifting. Activity resulting from interactions by the newly formed Indian and Australian continental margins and the Kerguelen plume may have resulted in stranded fragments of continental crust, isolated at shallow levels in the Indian Ocean lithosphere.

Chemical and isotope compositions of rocks dredged from the Shatsky Rise

Magmatic rocks of the Shatsky Rise form two groups replacing one another in time. The earlier ferrotholeiites enriched in potassium compose large massifs. Trachybasalts form seamounts and neotectonic ridges. Composition of volcanites indicates that two sources of magmatism took part in their formation: a depleted source characteristic of basalts of mid-ocean ridges and a ''plume'' source participating in formation of oceanic plateaus.

Geochemistry of igneous rocks recovered from a transect across the Mariana Trough, arc, fore-arc, and trench, at DSDP Leg 60 Holes and DM17

Major and trace element analyses are presented for 110 samples from the DSDP Leg 60 basement cores drilled along a transect across the Mariana Trough, arc, fore-arc, and Trench at about 18°N. The igneous rocks forming breccias at Site 453 in the west Mariana Trough include plutonic cumulates and basalts with calc-alkaline affinities. Basalts recovered from Sites 454 and 456 in the Mariana Trough include types with compositions similar to normal MORB and types with calc-alkaline affinities within a single hole. At Site 454 the basalts show a complete compositional transition between normal MORB and calc-alkaline basalts. These basalts may be the result of mixing of the two magma types in small sub-crustal magma reservoirs or assimilation of calc-alkaline, arc-derived vitric tuffs by normal MORB magmas during eruption or intrusion. A basaltic andesite clast in the breccia recovered from Site 457 on the active Mariana arc and samples dredged from a seamount in the Mariana arc are calc-alkaline and similar in composition to the basalts recovered from the Mariana Trough and West Mariana Ridge. Primitive island arc tholeiites were recovered from all four sites (Sites 458-461) drilled on the fore-arc and arc-side wall of the trench. These basalts form a coherent compositional group distinct from the Mariana arc, West Mariana arc, and Mariana Trough calc-alkaline lavas, indicating temporal (and perhaps spatial?) chemical variations in the arc magmas erupted along the transect. Much of the 209 meters of basement cored at Site 458 consists of endiopside- and bronzite-bearing, Mg-rich andesites with compositions related to boninites. These andesites have the very low Ti, Zr, Ti/Zr, P, and rare-earthelement contents characteristic of boninites, although they are slightly light-rare-earth-depleted and have lower MgO, Cr, Ni, and higher CaO and Al2O3 contents than those reported for typical boninites. The large variations in chemistry observed in the lavas recovered from this transect suggest that diverse mantle source compositions and complex petrogenetic process are involved in forming crustal rocks at this intra-oceanic active plate margin.