Hydrous aluminosilicate metasomatism in an intra-oceanic subduction zone: Implications from the Kurancali (Turkey) ultramafic-mafic cumulates within the Alpine Neotethys Ocean

Abstract

The Kurancali ultramafic-mafic cumulate body, an allochthonous ophiolitic sliver in central Anatolia, is characterized by the presence of abundant hydrous phases (phlogopite, pargasite) besides augitic diopside, plagioclase, and accessory amounts of rutile, sphene, apatite, zircon, and calcite. Based on modes of the essential minerals, the olivine-orthopyroxene-free cumulates are grouped as clinopyroxenite, hydrous clinopyroxenite, phlogopitite, hornblendite, layered gabbro, and diorite. Petrographical, mineralogical and geochemical features of the rocks infer crystallization from a hydrous magma having high-K calc-alkaline affinity with slightly alkaline character, and point to metasomatised mantle as the magma source. Our evidence implies that the metasomatising component, which modified the composition of the mantle wedge source rock in an intra-oceanic subduction zone, was a H2O, alkali and carbonate-rich aluminosilicate fluid and/or melt, probably derived from a subducted slab. We suggest that the metasomatic agents in the subarc mantle led to the generation of a hydrous magma, which produced the Kurancali cumulates in an island-arc basement in a supra-subduction-zone setting during the closure of the Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan branch of the Alpine Neotethys Ocean.