Mineralogy, geochemistry, and melt evolution of the Kalaymyo peridotite massif in the Indo-Myanmar Ranges (western Myanmar), and tectonic implications

Abstract

We present new whole-rock major, trace, and platinum group element (PGE) and mineral chemistry data from the Kalaymyo peridotite massif in the central part of the Indo-Myanmar Ranges (western Myanmar) and discuss its mantle melt evolution. The Kalaymyo peridotites consist mainly of harzburgites, which show typical porphyroclastic or coarse-grained equigranular textures. They are composed of olivine (forsterite, Fo = 89.8–90.5), orthopyroxene (enstatite, En 86–91 , wollastonite, Wo 1–4 , ferrosilite, Fs 8–10 ; Mg# = 89.6–91.9), clinopyroxene (En 46–49 Wo 47–50 Fs 3–5 ; Mg# = 90.9–93.6), and spinel (Mg# = 67.1–78.9; Cr# = 13.5–31.5), and have relatively homogeneous whole-rock compositions with Mg#s of 90.1–90.8 and SiO 2 (41.5–43.65 wt%), Al 2 O 3 (1.66–2.66 wt%), and CaO (1.45–2.67 wt%) contents. They display light rare earth element (LREE)–depleted chondrite-normalized (CN) REE patterns with (La/Yb) CN = 0.04–0.21 and (Gd/Yb) CN = 0.40–0.84, and show a slight enrichment from Pr to La with (La/Pr) CN in the range of 0.98–2.36. The Kalaymyo peridotites are characterized by Pd-enriched chondrite-normalized PGE patterns with superchondritic (Pd/Ir) CN ratios (1.15–2.36). Their calculated oxygen fugacities range between the quartz-fayalite-magnetite (QFM) oxygen buffers, QFM–0.57 and QFM+0.90. These mineralogical and geochemical features collectively suggest that the Kalaymyo peridotites represent residual upper mantle rocks after low to moderate degrees (5%–15%) of partial melting at a mid-oceanic ridge environment. The observed enrichment in LREE and Pd was a result of their reactions with enriched mid-oceanic ridge basalt–like melts percolating through these already depleted residual peridotites. The Kalaymyo and other ophiolites in the Indo-Myanmar Ranges therefore represent mid-oceanic ridge–type Tethyan oceanic lithosphere derived from a downgoing plate and accreted into a westward-migrating subduction-accretion system along the eastern margin of India.