Ultramafic tectonite of the Miyamori ophiolitic complex in the Kitakami Mountains, Northeast Japan: hydrous upper mantle in an island arc

Abstract

The ultramafic tectonite of the Miyamori ophiolitic complex is divided into two types, one bearing aluminous spinel (Cr/(Cr+Al)< 0.4) and the other, chromian spinel(Cr/(Cr + Al)<0.4) (denoted ASPP and CSPP respectively). ASPP consists mainly of harzburgite and lherzolite and occurs as isolated kilometric patches in CSPP, which can be subdivided into massive and layered types. Massive CSPP consists mainly of magnesian harzburgite and dunite, whereas layered CSPP commonly is stratified and consists of less magnesian harzburgite, dunite, wehrlite, lherzolite, websterite, and clinopyroxenite. The 2 km thick layered CSPP occurs within the massive CSPP, and their lithologies are transitional. The structural and lithologic features of CSPP and the chemical variations of its olivine and spinel suggest that the layered CSPP crystallized from segregated partial melt, leaving the massive CSPP as a strongly depleted residue. Hornblende is invariably present in both the ASPP and CSPP, whereas phlogopite ispresent only in CSPP. The hornblende in CSPP is distinctly richer in K2O (0.4–1.0 wt%) than that in ASPP(<0.1 wt%), but residual peridotite of CSPP is more depleted in major elements than that of ASPP. The low TiO2/K2O ratio of hornblende and the presence of TiO2 poor phlogopite suggest that partial melting, melt segregation, and crystallization to form CSPP took place in the upper mantle beneath an island arc. By contrast, ASPP could be the source material of CSPP which formed as slightly depleted residue beneath a back-arc basin.