Devonian supra-subduction zone setting for the Princhester and Northumberland Serpentinites: implications for the tectonic evolution of the northern New England Orogen

Abstract

The Princhester Serpentinite of the Marlborough terrane of the northern New England Orogen is a remnant of upper mantle peridotite that was partially melted at an oceanic spreading centre at 562 Ma, and subsequently interacted with Late Devonian island arc basalts in an intra-oceanic supra-subduction zone (SSZ) setting. The full range of rare-earth element (REE) contents, including U-shaped patterns, can be explained by a single process of reaction of partially melted, depleted peridotite with Late Devonian calc-alkaline and island arc tholeiite magmas by equilibrium porous flow, fractionating the REE by a chromatographic column effect. The Northumberland Serpentinite on South Island of the Percy Group has similar REE and high field strength element (HFSE) contents to the most depleted samples of the Princhester Serpentinite, supporting a common origin. However, spinel compositions suggest that the Northumberland Serpentinite interacted with boninitic magmas. The REE and mineral geochemistry indicates that the Princhester and Northumberland Serpentinites both represent part of the mantle component of a disrupted SSZ ophiolite. The ophiolite is considered to have formed above an east-dipping subduction zone, based on the geochemistry of Devonian island arc basalts between Mt Morgan and Monto, which include compositions identical to dykes and gabbroic blocks within the Princhester Serpentinite. Blockage of the subduction zone by collision with the Australian continent during the Late Devonian led to slab breakoff and the reversal of subduction direction, trapping the Late Devonian ophiolite in a forearc position. Its location, in a forearc setting above a growing accretionary wedge, conforms to the definition of a Cordilleran-type ophiolite. This interpretation is consistent with current views that most ophiolites are formed from young, hot and thin oceanic lithosphere at forearc, intra-arc and backarc spreading centres in a SSZ setting, and that emplacement follows genesis by 10 million years or less. Late Devonian crustal growth may have been widespread in the New England Orogen, because the disrupted ophiolite assemblage of the Yarras complex in the southern New England Orogen is probably of this age. Extensional tectonism at the end of the Carboniferous dismembered the Princhester – Northumberland ophiolite, removed the crustal section, and produced windows of accretionary wedge rocks within the fragmented ophiolite. The Princhester Serpentinite, together with fault slices of metasedimentary rocks, was thrust westward as a flat sheet over folded strata of the Yarrol Forearc Basin by a Late Permian out-of-sequence thrust during the Hunter – Bowen Orogeny, completing the emplacement of the Marlborough terrane. The Princhester and Northumberland Serpentinites could have been displaced by strike-slip movement along the Stanage Fault Zone or an equivalent structure. There is no record in the northern New England Orogen of SSZ ophiolites and volcanic arc deposits of Cambrian age, as exposed along the Peel Fault. Partial melting of the Princhester Serpentinite at an oceanic spreading centre at 562 Ma, recorded by mafic intrusives displaying N-MORB chemistry, was an earlier event that was outboard of any Early Paleozoic subduction zone along the margin of the Australian continent, and cannot be regarded as representing the early history of the New England Orogen. It is possible that the formation of intra-oceanic arcs in latest Silurian and Devonian time was the first tectonic event common to both the southern and northern New England Orogen.