Geological evolution of the Red Sea: By R.G. Coleman, Oxford University Press, NY, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993.186 pp., hardcover, ISBN 0-19-507048-8

Abstract

Melt inclusions and their host olivines in basaltic lavas provide important information about the nature of their mantle source. We present the first analyzed chemical data of olivine-hosted melt inclusions in Cenozoic basalts from the North Hainan Island and report the discovery of both tholeiitic and alkalic melt inclusions in a single rock sample. Cenozoic basalts from the Hainan Island are predominantly tholeiites with only small amounts of alkali basalts. There is a much broader compositional variation in melt inclusions than whole rocks. Compared to partial melts of mantle peridotite, the Hainan basalts have lower CaO, Na2O/TiO2, CaO/Al2O3 and Co/Fe, and higher TiO2, FeO∗, Fe/Mn, Zn/Fe and Zn/Mn. The olivine phenocrysts from the Hainan basalts contain lower Ca and Mn, and higher Ni and Fe/Mn than those of olivines crystallized from partial melts of peridotite. Projections from or towards olivine into the plane CS-MS-A for melt inclusions and whole rocks with MgO >7.5 wt% imply that the residual minerals in the source of the tholeiites are mainly clinopyroxene and garnet, possibly with some orthopyroxene, while in the source of the alkali basalts they are dominated by clinopyroxene and garnet. This indicates that a pyroxenite component could serve as the source lithology of the Hainan basalts. The OIB-like trace element compositions, with Ba, Sr, Nb and Ta positive anomalies, and Th and U negative anomalies, of the Hainan basalts suggest that a recycled oceanic crust component was involved in the source of the Hainan basalts. Based on a CMAS projection of primary magma compositions of the whole rocks and melt inclusions, we infer that a stage-2 silica-deficient pyroxenite derived from melt–peridotite reaction or mechanical mixing between recycled oceanic crust and peridotite can serve as the source lithology. Partial melts derived from such a source can match the overall compositions of the Hainan basalts better than those of MORB-eclogite and fertile peridotite. The compositional range from tholeiitic to alkalic basalts is ascribed to decreasing degrees of melting of a similar silica-deficient pyroxenite source, which is consistent with the lower incompatible trace element and REE abundances in the tholeiites compared to the alkali basalts. Both subalkaline and alkaline melt inclusions are present in a single sample, which indicates that magma mixing had occurred in the deep magma chamber prior to eruption below the Hainan Island.