The formation of TTGs by hydrous partial melting and anatexis from a gabbroic mantle source in Viti Levu, Fiji Islands

Abstract

Tonalite, trondhjemite, granodiorite (TTG) rocks in Viti Levu, Fiji Islands formed through hydrous partial melting of gabbroic oceanic crust at low-pressure amphibolite-facies conditions caused by flat subduction of an oceanic plateau from Yavuna creek during late-Eocene time. This was followed by the formation of a quartz diorite unit by anatexis of the gabbro in the mid-Miocene. The TTGs occur as migmatitic discordant stocks and dykes within the older gabbroic unit of the Yavuna Pluton. Zircon ages show the parental gabbro to be ∼ 47.5 Ma in age, whereas the TTGs, consisting of a tonalite and a quartz diorite suite, are ∼ 37.1 Ma and ∼ 16.5 Ma old, respectively. The average δ18O value of 4.8‰ in zircons from the gabbro and the tonalite suggest a homogenous mantle source. However, about 50% of the analyzed zircons from the gabbroic and tonalitic rock samples show lower δ18O values than this average, and are interpreted as reflecting interaction of hydrothermally altered seafloor with the deep mantle source. The zircon εHf of 13 in the analyzed TTGs is interpreted as reflecting typical juvenile continental crust. PerpleX whole-rock calculations supports that the tonalite formed by hydrous partial melting of the gabbro through decompression under water-saturated amphibolite-facies conditions at a temperature of ∼ 770 °C at ∼ 3.8 kbar, whereas the quartz diorite formed by anatexis under granulite-facies conditions at ∼ 800 °C at ∼ 1.7 kbar at very shallow depth. Our investigation provides new evidence that the tonalite formed by hydrous partial melting and the quartz diorite by metasomatism and anatexis of an extant gabbroic rock/crust at < 0.1 Ga in the South Pacific region.