IMPACT BRECCIAS AND IMPACTITES OF THE KARA AND UST'-KARA ASTROBLEMES |
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| Abstract: | Seventeen upper-mantle ultramafic xenoliths from the Lower Quaternary Tal Khodr Imtan cinder cone in southern Syria have revealed a dominant protogranular texture of nine spinel lherzolites, two spinel harzburgites, four spinel dunites, one spinel olivine websterite, and one spinel clinopyroxenite. The lherzolites, harzburgites, and dunites contain Cr-diopside and brown-red picotite, with a basanitic host rock; the websterite and clinopyroxenite contain Ti-Al-augite and Cr-hercynite. A lherzolite to dunite depletion trend is shown in the abundance of intermediate- and lightrare-earth elements (IREE and LREE) and from analytical data of dunitic olivine, with Ca, Al, Fe, Cr, and Si being the most depleted elements. The depletion probably resulted from successive partial melting. The scoriaceous basanite shows enrichments in REE and trace elements from a plume; the basanitic coating (around ultramafic xenoliths) increases in Mg/Mg+Fe+2 and concentrations of Al2O3, TiO2, and Na2O by contamination from peridotitic olivine, and also from eclogite-gabbro and nephelinite near the bottom of the rifted crust. Differences in the REE and trace-element concentrations among the peridotite xenoliths, the basanite host rock, and websterite indicate at least three different depths for their parent sources. The ultramafic inclusions in the basanitic host rock, as well as xenoliths in a carbonatite dike, suggest a deeper source for the carbonatite magma. At least part of the enrichment of the plume probably was accomplished by the subducted Tethys oceanic crust, suboceanic litho-sphere, and eclogite-gabbro. The thick plateau basalt in southern Syria indicates heavy and deep fracturing, and the extrusions of successive magmas from the upper mantle created a stretching and thinning in the continental crust. The proximity of this plateau basalt area to the Dead Sea-Jordan River Valley Rift, together with the source of the ultramafic xenoliths, points to a possible close relationship between the Red Sea Rift and the fracturing (offshoot rifting) in southern Syria. |
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