Origin and Evolution of Primitive Island Arc Ankaramites from Western Epi, Vanuatu |
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| Authors: | BARSDELL M; BERRY R F |
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| Institution: | Department of Geology, University of Tasmania Hobart, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry of a suite oflavas from the northwestern part of Epi Island in the VanuatuArc, southwest Pacific Ocean, are described. The more primitivemembers of this suite are rich in clinopyroxene phenocrystsand are strikingly similar to primitive lavas from MerelavaIs. in the same arc. These primitive, clinopyroxene-rich lavasare designated arc ankaramites to differentiate them from primitive,olivine-rich arc picrites which also occur in this arc system.The primitive Epi lavas are shown to have evolved from low-Kprimary melts which were saturated in both olivine and clinopyroxene.The most Mg-rich olivine (mg-number 92?2) and clinopyroxene(mg-number 94?4) in the ankaramites represent cotectic crystallizationwith Cr-rich spinels. Initial plagioclase (An94) crystallizedin equilibrium with olivine (mg-number 78–80) and theplagioclase-olivine cotectic path extends to mg-number 50 andAn58. The ankaramitic parent magma composition is calculated fromthe most primitive olivine phenocryst composition and the liquidline of descent, and has 14?5% MgO, 11% A12O3, 14?8%CaO, 0?29%K2O, and flat REE patterns. The origin of this parent magmahas been modelled with Ghiorso & Carmichael's (1985) programSILMIN. An assimilation model involving a clinopyroxenite orwehrlite assimilate and a low-K picrite host requires ca. 90%assimilate to match the phase chemistry and bulk-rock chemistryof the parental ankaramite. The required degree of superheatingnecessary to achieve this, and the apparent restriction of low-Kpicrites to Anatom Island in the far south of the arc, rendersthis model unsatisfactory. Partial melting models involvingtypical upper mantle lherzolite also fail to give satisfactoryresults, but partial melting of a wehrlite source (mg-number87-88) with < 10% normative (mol.) orthopyroxene, at 5?10kband 1325?C, closely matches the parental ankaramite composition.These results can be reconciled with melting of lower crustalcumulates by an ascending peridotite diapir, a hypothesis whichaccounts for the very low Ni contents of the parental meltsand primitive phenocrysts. The more evolved lavas define two distinct assemblages: a relativelytight grouping of high-K andesites straddling the high-K-‘shoshonite’boundary, characterized by low Zr/Rb (2?2) and high K2O/Na2Oratios (1?3–0?9), and a relatively coherent fractionationpathway to dacites straddling the ‘calc-alkaline’-high-Kboundary, with Zr/Rb = 2?9 and K2O/Na2O=0?6. Numerical modellingdemonstrates that the dacite trend is compatible with fractionationfrom an ankaramite parent, whereas the high-K andesites areincompatible with open- or closed-system fractionation fromankaramitic or picritic sources and may represent fractionated,hybrid magmas, largely derived from melting of lower crustalgabbros. |
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