Supra-subduction zone tectonic setting of the Muslim Bagh Ophiolite, northwestern Pakistan: Insights from geochemistry and petrology

Abstract

The geology of the Muslim Bagh area comprises the Indian passive continental margin and suture zone, which is overlain by the Muslim Bagh Ophiolite, Bagh Complex and a Flysch Zone of marine–fluvial successions. The Muslim Bagh Ophiolite has a nearly-complete ophiolite stratigraphy. The mantle sequence of foliated peridotite is mainly harzburgite with minor dunite and contains podiform chromite deposits that grade upwards into transition zone dunite. The mantle rocks (harzburgite/dunite) resulted from large degrees of partial melting of lherzolite and have also been affected by melt–peridotite reaction. The Muslim Bagh crustal section has a cyclic succession of ultramafic–mafic cumulate with dunite at the base, that grades into wehrlite/pyroxenite with gabbros (olivine gabbro, norite and hornblende gabbro) at the top. The sheeted dykes are immature in nature and are rooted in crustal gabbros. The dykes are mainly metamorphosed dolerites, with minor intrusions of plagiogranites. The configuration of the crustal section indicates that the crustal rocks were formed over variable time periods, in pulses, by a low magma supply rate. The whole rock geochemistry of the gabbros, sheeted dykes and the mafic dyke swarm suggests that they formed in a supra-subduction zone tectonic setting in Neo-Tethys during the Late Cretaceous. The dykes of the mafic swarm crosscut both the ophiolite and the metamorphic sole rocks and have a less-marked subduction signature than the other mafic rocks. These dykes were possibly emplaced off-axis and can be interpreted to have been generated in the spinel peridotite stability zone i.e., < 50–60 km, and to have risen through a slab window. The Bagh Complex is an assemblage of Triassic–Cretaceous igneous and sedimentary rocks, containing tholeiitic, N-MORB-like basalts and alkali basalts with OIB-type signatures. Nb–Ta depletion in both basalt types suggests possible contamination from continental fragments incorporated into the opening Tethyan oceanic basin during break-up of Gondwana. The lithologies and ages of the Bagh Complex imply that these rocks formed in an area extending from the continental margin over the Neo-Tethyan ocean floor. The Bagh Complex was then juxtaposed with the Muslim Bagh Ophiolite in the final stage of tectonic emplacement.