High-pressure melting in metapelites of a 2 Ga old subducted oceanic crust (Usagaran belt, Tanzania): implications from melt inclusions, fluid inclusions and thermodynamic modelling

Abstract

Investigation of polymineralic melt inclusions preserved in garnet of eclogite-facies metapelites of the Usagaran belt, Tanzania, is of particular importance as these metapelites, intercalated in oceanic metabasites, document the rare case of partial melting at high temperatures in a subducted oceanic crust. With an age of 2 Ga the rocks represent one of the oldest oceanic crusts and confirm a subduction process already at Paleoproterozoic times. Partial melting probably was initiated by dehydration melting under the presence of a CO2-rich fluid phase. The melt is preserved in siliceous polymineralic inclusions, while CO2 locally reacted with the garnet host to form dolomite-quartz-kyanite inclusions. During this reaction, the REE spectrum of garnet is adopted by the dolomite. Furthermore, graphite inclusions in garnet must have precipitated from the CO2 fluid by reduction. The highly ordered graphite structure indicates a formation temperature of at least 700 °C. Rehomogenization experiments of the siliceous polymineralic inclusions yield a homogeneous melt of rhyolitic, peraluminous composition. Thermodynamic modelling enables to deduce a P–T path in accordance with high P–T conditions (minimum 2.0 GPa, 900 °C) where a partial melt formed due to phengite breakdown leading to the preserved peak mineral assemblage garnet, alkali feldspar, kyanite, quartz and rutile. A very fast uplift of the oceanic crustal rocks can be deduced from the occurrence of very finely exsolved metastable ternary feldspar and from the preserved prograde zoning in garnet.