Mineralogy and geochemistry of volcanic and plutonic rocks from the boundaries of the Caroline plate: Tectonic implications

Abstract

Chemical and mineralogical data from rocks dredged at six sites along plate boundaries around the Caroline Sea define at least three separate igneous suites. Three sites were located in the Sorol Trough, along the Caroline-Pacific plate boundary, and three sites were located in the Ayu Trough along the Caroline-Philippine plate boundary. Geophysical data suggest that both features have originated through processes of crustal extension. Weathered basalts with mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) affinities were recovered from the base of the northern margin of the Sorol Trough. Fresh transitional-to-alkalic pillow basalts from a seamount in the central part of the trough have geochemical and Sr-isotopic characteristics similar to enriched MORB or volcanics associated with off-ridge volcanism. A suite of tholeiitic rocks consisting of high-Mg basalt, ferrobasalt and a variety of mafic to ultramafic rocks dredged from the western section of the Sorol Trough has chemical and mineralogical characteristics of other intraplate tholeiitic suites like those from Hawaii. The ferrobasalts could have been derived from a high-Mg basaltic liquid through fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene and plagioclase. The geochemical data indicate that both MORB and “hot-spot” type sources have been involved in the generation of magmas beneath the Sorol Trough. Furthermore, the highly metamorphosed and tectonized mafic to ultramafic rocks recovered with the tholeiites suggest that a significant component of shear accompanied crustal accretion along “leaky” transform faults within the Sorol Trough. The chemical and isotopic characteristics of fresh to weathered pillow-lava fragments from the axial rift and eastern margin of the Ayu Trough, suggest that a MORB-type source was tapped during crustal accretion along a central spreading centre. An assemblage of metabasalts, metagabbros and silicic plutonic rocks (plagiogranites), recovered from a scarp along the western margin of the trough, have petrologic and chemical features analogous to rocks from plutonic complexes in ophiolites and some oceanic ridges. The plagiogranites could be differentiates from a relatively hydrous MORB magma, but cannot be related to the slightly LIL-enriched basalts in the Ayu Trough by crystal fractionation. Two separate mantle sources are implicated. Metamorphic features in the plutonic rocks are inferred to be the result of hydrothermal and dynamic events associated with the inception of spreading and to subsequent tectonism which exposed them. The petrochemistry of rocks from the Ayu and Sorol troughs is consistent with the hypothesis that crustal accretion occurred along the northern and western boundaries of the Caroline plate and further suggests that a variety of sub-oceanic mantle sources have been involved in the genesis of the crust in each region.