Petrology of Al- and Cr-rich ophiolitic chromitites from the Muğla, SW Turkey: implications from composition of chromite, solid inclusions of platinum-group mineral, silicate, and base-metal mineral, and Os-isotope geochemistry

• DOI: 10.1007/s00410-009-0402-9
• Publication Date: 2009-04-03T15:47:21Z
• Authors: İbrahim Uysal; Mahmud Tarkian; M. Burhan Sadiklar; Federica Zaccarini; Thomas Meisel; Giorgio Garuti; Stefanie Heidrich
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Ultramafic rocks around the city of Mugla in SW Turkey are represented by mantle peridotites depleted to various degrees, ranging from cpx-rich harzburgites to depleted harzburgite and dunite. Cpx-rich harzburgites are thought to be the residua left after extraction of MORB-type basalt, from which high-Al chromitite [49.2 < Cr# = 100 × Cr/(Cr + Al) < 53.5] crystallised with a higher proportion of 187Os/188Os (average of 0.1361). However, depleted harzburgites are assumed to be the residua left after extraction of hydrous boninitic melt produced by second stage partial melting of already depleted mantle due to a subducting slab, from which high-Cr chromitites (64.2 < Cr# < 85.9) with lower and heterogeneous 187Os/188Os ratio (average of 0.1324) were crystallised as a result of melt–rock interaction in a supra-subduction environment. Dunites around the chromite deposits are considered to be the product of melt–peridotite interaction. Most of the chromitites contain high-Cr chromite and display enrichment in IPGE (Os, Ir, Ru) over PPGE (Rh, Pt, Pd), with PGE concentrations between 61 and 1,305 ppb. Consistently, laurite-erlichmanite series minerals with various Os concentrations are found to be the most abundant PGM inclusions in chromite. Os–Ir–Ru alloy, irarsite, and kashinite, as well as Pt–Fe alloy and Pt-oxide, which are not common in ophiolitic chromitites, were also detected as magmatic PGM inclusions. Pentlandite, millerite, and, rarely heazlewoodite form the magmatic inclusions of base-metal sulphide. The presence of olivine and clinopyroxene, as well as hydrous silicate inclusions such as amphibole and phlogopite, in high-Cr chromitite supports the idea that high-Cr chromitites were formed in a supra-subduction environment.