Petrological investigation of the Ganyu peridotite in the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure terrane, eastern China

Abstract

The ultramafic body sampled in the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling (CCSD) Hole PP3 is located in the eastern part of the Dabie–Sulu UHP metamorphic belt near Donghai County. It is about 480 m thick, and consists chiefly of garnet peridotite, dunite and serpentinite. The principal minerals include olivine, chromium spinel, diopside, enstatite, garnet with minor secondary augite, phlogopite and amphibole. Both the olivine and orthopyroxene are highly magnesian, and the garnet is pyropic with 5.4–6.4% CaO and 0.3–3.3% Cr 2O 3. Two generations of clinopyroxene are present; an early diopside followed by augite. Chromium spinels are highly variable with Cr#s (100Cr / (Cr + Al)) between 51 and 89, and their compositions reflect different processes of formation, namely partial melting and eclogite, amphibole and greenschist facies metamorphism. The Mg#s (100 Mg / (Mg + Fe 2+))of the spinels correlate positively with the Cr#s but negatively with oxygen fugacity. Based on the spinel compositions the ultramafic rocks originated in the shallow mantle, then subducted to depths of more than 100 km and finally exhumed to the surface. They underwent partial melting at shallow depths, mostly in the spinel facies, and were later transformed into garnet peridotites during deep subduction. All of the rocks were weakly metasomatized during exhumation and were subjected to retrograde metamorphism.