A Vestige of Earth's Oldest Ophiolite

A sheeted-dike complex within the approximately 3.8-billion-year-old Isua supracrustal belt (ISB) in southwest Greenland provides the oldest evidence of oceanic crustal accretion by spreading. The geochemistry of the dikes and associated pillow lavas demonstrates an intraoceanic island arc and mid-ocean ridge-like setting, and their oxygen isotopes suggest a hydrothermal ocean-floor-type metamorphism. The pillows and dikes are associated with gabbroic and ultramafic rocks that together make up an ophiolitic association: the Paleoarchean Isua ophiolite complex. These sheeted dikes offer evidence for remnants of oceanic crust formed by sea-floor spreading of the earliest intact rocks on Earth.

Oxygen isotope and chemical studies on the origin of large plagiogranite bodies in northern Oman, and their relationship to the overlying massive sulphide deposits

The extraordinarily well-preserved and well-exposed Semail ophiolite of northern Oman hosts several large plagiogranite intrusions in proximity to economic copper sulphide deposits of the Lasail mining district. A progression of isotopic, chemical and mineralogical transformations observed within the plagiogranites and high-level gabbros (HLG), and a comparison of these effects with those in the lowermost dykes of the immediately overlying sheeted dyke complex (SDC) tracks the evolution of hydrothermal fluids and the alteration of overlying dykes and pillow lavas during discharge of these fluids on the sea floor. The largest hydrothermal alteration aureoles, and the greatest extent of metamorphic veins and metasomatic replacement features, are found adjacent to the largest high-level plagiogranite bodies, beneath and adjacent to the major ore bodies in northern Oman. The ubiquitous presence of metamorphic actinolitic hornblende, sodic plagioclase, epidote and titanite in metabasalts within the high-temperature alteration zones points to the most likely mineralogical and structural controls on the development and evolution of the hydrothermal fluids. Depleted Cu contents of the adjacent crustal rocks and Cu enrichments above the plagiogranite intrusions demonstrate the redistribution of heavy metals adjacent to the complexes. Field relationships implicate the formation of both the epidosites and plagiogranites in the genesis of the ore deposits. An important process inferred from the field and geochemical data is the assimilation of previously hydrothermally altered basaltic and gabbroic country rocks by stoping into the magma chambers developed near the SDC-gabbro horizon in the ophiolite. We suggest that this process of combined assimilation-fractional crystallization, together with replenishment and recharge by injection and quenching of basaltic magma ‘pillows’ into these plagiogranite magma chambers (i.e. RAFC), plays a major role in the development of these composite intrusions.

Ophiolites as faithful records of the oxygen isotope ratio of ancient seawater: the Solund-Stavfjord Ophiolite Complex as a Late Ordovician example

Fragments of the Ordovician sea floor preserved in the Solund-Stavfjord Ophiolite Complex in Western Norway serve as proxies for the δ18O of Ordovician seawater. The pillow basalt sections at Oldra and Strand are both enriched in 18O, recording their alteration by seawater at low temperature on the sea floor. In contrast, the sheeted dykes and gabbros generally are depleted of 18O, reflecting the modal proportion of secondary, low-18O chlorite and epidote formed from seawater at high temperature. These isotopic contrasts simply reflect the high water to rock ratio of sea-floor alteration and the temperature dependence of the 18O partitioning between minerals and water. Superposition of high-δ18O pillows on low-δ18O dykes and gabbros is a necessary consequence of alteration at both low and high temperatures by a fluid near 0‰ and is easily recognized in well-preserved ophiolites. Also, the δ18O of seawater can be independently calculated from 18O fractionations among secondary minerals. Older, dismembered and highly metamorphosed segments of the oceanic crust may still retain the original seawater imprint because their subsequent obduction and metamorphism was relatively closed to external fluids. Suites of diamond-bearing nodules from kimberlites still have contrasting high- and low-δ18O eclogites, proving that even subduction into the mantle is not sufficient to erase the seawater fingerprint. Inspection of the sea-floor, ophiolite and eclogite data reveals no secular trend in δ18O, indicating that the δ18O of seawater has not changed with geological age. Because the δ18O of seawater itself is fixed by sea-floor-seawater exchange, the constancy of δ18O of seawater implies that the scale and style of sea-floor-seawater interactions has not changed over time.

Recycled oceanic crust observed in 'ghost plagioclase' within the source of Mauna Loa lavas

The hypothesis that mantle plumes contain recycled oceanic crust is now widely accepted. Some specific source components of the Hawaiian plume have been inferred to represent recycled oceanic basalts, pelagic sediments or oceanic gabbros. Bulk lava compositions, however, retain the specific trace-element fingerprint of the original crustal component in only a highly attenuated form. Here we report the discovery of exotic, strontium-enriched melt inclusions in Mauna Loa olivines. Their complete trace-element patterns strongly resemble those of layered gabbros found in ophiolites, which are characterized by cumulus plagioclase with very high strontium abundances. The major-element compositions of these melts indicate that their composition cannot be the result of the assimilation of present-day oceanic crust through which the melts have travelled. Instead, the gabbro has been transformed into a (high-pressure) eclogite by subduction and recycling, and this eclogite has then been incorporated into the Hawaiian mantle plume. The trace-element signature of the original plagioclase is present only as a 'ghost' signature, which permits specific identification of the recycled rock type. The 'ghost plagioclase' trace-element signature demonstrates that the former gabbro can retain much of its original chemical identity through the convective cycle without completely mixing with other portions of the former oceanic crust.