The Macquarie Island ophiolite complex: Mid-Tertiary oceanic lithosphere from a major ocean basin

Abstract

The rocks of Macquarie Island are part of the mid-Tertiary oceanic lithosphere from a major ocean basin. They were probably created at the Indian—Australian—Pacific spreading ridge. The basalts and dolerites are usually porphyritic, carry plagioclase (An 87-80) as a dominant phenocryst phase with less abundant olivine (Fo 89-85), chrome spinel and rare clinopyroxene (Ca 45Mg 50Fe 5|Ca 38Mg 50Fe 12) phenocrysts. Normatively the rocks range from ne- to Q-bearing, with most falling near the critical plane of normative silica undersaturation. Dykes tend to be more Fe-rich than lavas, and to include the more di-poor rocks. The rocks also range compositionally from typical ocean floor basalts through to varieties relatively enriched in some incompatible trace elements, particularly Nb (20–60 ppm), that otherwise retain ocean-floor basalt phenocryst assemblages, major-element compositions and Ti, Ni, Cr and Zr contents. This enrichment, also characteristic of ocean-floor basalts from the “abnormal” ridge segments near 45° N and 36° N (FAMOUS area) on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, causes the rocks to plot away from the ocean-floor basalt fields on popular trace-element diagrams intended to identify tectonic affinities of basalts. The upper parts of the Macquarie Island oceanic lithosphere section can be thought of as a vertical slice through a magma column, differentiating at shallow levels. The layered and massive gabbros that underlie the basalts and dolerites are composed essentially of olivine, plagioclase and clinopyroxene. Olivine and plagioclase are cumulate phases in the layered rocks, clinopyroxene is postcumulus. Mineral compositions of the gabbros, particularly those of the layered rocks, are closely resembled by phenocryst compositions in the basalts and dolerites. Plagiogranites and trondheimites are unknown from the island, and norites very rare. Thus, Macquarie Island basalts, dolerites and gabbros form a distinctive igneous association that ought to make Macquarie Island-type ophiolite complexes from major ocean basins an easily recognized ophiolite type in continental orogenic terranes, even when dismembered.