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The Amami Plateau, Daito Ridge, and Oki-Daito Ridge of the northwestern Philippine Sea Plate are remnants of Mesozoic island arcs. We have newly recovered samples of peridotite and peridotite-derived minerals from the Daito Ridge. The peridotite samples are composed of serpentinized/altered olivines, orthopyroxene porphyroclasts, small clinopyroxenes, and spinels, indicating a harzburgitic origin. Chondrite- and primitive mantle-normalized trace-element patterns for clinopyroxenes are characterized by a steep positive slope from middle rare earth elements to heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) plus yttrium. The light rare earth elements (LREEs) and Sr and Zr contents of clinopyroxenes vary in abundance, and some crystals have high LREE/HREE ratios coupled with positive Sr and Zr anomalies. These petrological and geochemical characteristics are not consistent with the Daito peridotites being the residue of a single partial melting event including melt extraction expected for mid-ocean ridge mantle. Instead, the peridotite source must have been enriched with slab-derived components, which are associated with arc-related magma. Thus, it is concluded that the studied peridotite fragments belong to an exhumed mantle section of a remnant proto-Philippine Sea island arc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Petit-spots, the late Miocene alkali basaltic volcanoes on the Early Cretaceous NW Pacific Plate, originate at the base of the lithosphere. The petit-spot volcanic rocks enclose fragments of tholeiitic basalt, dolerite, gabbro, and mantle peridotite, providing a unique window into the entire section of subducting oceanic lithosphere. We provide here the first direct observations on the deep structure of the Pacific lithosphere using microstructural analyses of a petit-spot peridotite xenolith. The xenolith is a lherzolite that consists mainly of coarse- and medium-grained olivine, orthopyroxene, and clinopyroxene, as well as fine-grained aggregates of spinel and orthopyroxene that probably represent replaced pyrope-rich garnet. A strong deformational fabric is marked by a parallel alignment of millimeter-sized elongate minerals and their crystallographic preferred orientation. The olivine displays a [010] fiber pattern with a girdle of [100] axes and a maximum of [010] perpendicular to the foliation, a pattern which is consistent with a transpressional deformation in high temperature conditions at the base of oceanic lithosphere. Our microstructural observations and seismic data indicate that the lower part of the NW Pacific lithosphere possess an early stage structure of mantle flow at the asthenosphere. This interpretation is compatible with a conventional model in which oceanic lithosphere is thickened during cooling and plate convection. A discrepancy between the weak anisotropy in the petit-spot peridotite and the strong azimuthal anisotropy from the seismic data in the NW Pacific plate implies the existence of a highly anisotropic component in the deep oceanic lithosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Higashi-akaishi garnet-bearing ultramafic body in the Sanbagawa metamorphic belt, Southwest Japan, represents a rare example of oceanic-type ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism. The body of 2 km × 5 km is composed mostly of anhydrous dunite with volumetrically minor lenses of clinopyroxene-rich rocks. Dunite samples contain high Ir-type platinum group elements (PGE) and Cr in bulk rocks, high Mg and Ni in olivine, and high Cr in spinel. On the other hand, clinopyroxene-rich rocks contain low concentrations of Ir-type PGE and Cr, high concentrations of fluid-mobile elements in bulk rocks, and low Ni and Mg in olivine. Clinopyroxene is diopsidic with low Al2O3. The compositions of bulk rocks and mineral chemistry of spinel, olivine, and clinopyroxene suggest that the olivine-dominated rocks are residual mantle peridotites after high degrees of influx partial melting, and that the clinopyroxene-rich rocks are cumulates of subduction-related melts. Thus, the Higashi-akaishi ultramafic body originated from the interior of the mantle wedge, most likely the forearc upper mantle. It was then incorporated into the Sanbagawa subduction channel by a mantle flow, and underwent high pressure metamorphism to a depth greater than 100 km. Such a strong active flow in the mantle wedge is likely facilitated by the lack of serpentinites along the interface between the slab and the overlying mantle, as it was too hot for serpentine. These unusually hot conditions and strong active mantle flow may reflect conditions in the earliest stage of development of subduction, and may have been maintained by massive upwelling and subsequent eastward flow of asthenospheric mantle in the northeastern Asian continent in Cretaceous time when the Sanbagawa belt began to form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) chromitites containing UHP minerals such as coesite and diamond have been reported from some ophiolites in Tibet and the Polar Urals. Their nature, i.e., origin, P-T path and abundance, however, are still controversial and left unclear. Here we describe chromitites in the Higashi-akaishi (HA) ultramafic complex in the Cretaceous Sanbagawa metamorphic belt, Japan, which experienced UHP condition (up to 3.8 GPa) at the peak metamorphism via subduction, in order to understand the nature of UHP chromitites. The HA peridotites typically contain garnets and are associated with eclogites, and their associated chromitites are expected to have experienced the UHP metamorphism. The Higashi-akaishi (HA) chromitites show banded to massive structures and are concordant to foliation of the surrounding peridotite. Chromian spinels in the chromitite and surrounding peridotites were sometimes fractured by deformation, and contain various inclusions, i.e., blade- and needle-like diopside lamellae, and minute inclusions of pyroxenes, olivine, and pargasite. The peculiar UHP minerals, such as coesite and diamond, have not been found under the microscope and the Raman spectrometer. Spinels in the HA chromitites show high Cr#s (0.7 to 0.85), and low Ti contents (<0.1 wt %), suggesting a genetic linkage to an arc magma. The HA chromitites share the basic petrographic and chemical features (i.e., diopside lamellae and arc-related spinel chemistry) with the UHP chromitites from Tibet and the Polar Urals. This suggests that some of the characteristics of the UHP chromitite can be obtained by compression, possibly via deep subduction, of low-P chromitite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Here we show how the Higashi-akaishi peridotite body in the Sanbagawa metamorphic belt, a sliver of the former mantle wedge of the eastern Eurasian plate margin, has exhumed subduction fluid noble gases and halogens with a marine pore-fluid signature from a depth of ∼100km. Previous work has only considered that water subduction into the mantle wedge occurs via decomposition of hydrated minerals in altered oceanic crust and sediment. The striking similarities of the observed noble gas and halogen compositions with marine pore fluids require subduction and closed system retention of marine pore fluid to at least 100km. The Higashi-akaishi peridotites appear to have frozen-in and preserved a previously unseen part of the deep water recycling process, requiring a reassessment of the dominant transport mechanism and source of water in subduction zones. Indeed, a small proportion of marine pore fluid, preserved in the downgoing hydrous peridotite, can account for the dominant heavy noble gas isotopic and elemental composition observed in the convecting mantle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Peridotite formed by contact metamorphism and dehydration breakdown of an antigorite schist from the Happo area, central Japan shows a strong olivine crystallographic preferred orientation (Ol CPO). The lack of mesoscale deformation structures associated with the intrusion and the lack of microstructural evidence for plastic deformation of neoblastic grains suggest that olivine CPO in this area did not form as a result of solid-state deformation. Instead, the good correspondence between the original antigorite orientation and the orientation of the newly formed olivine implies the CPO formed by topotactic growth of the olivine after antigorite. Ol CPO is likely to develop by a similar process in subduction zone environments where foliated serpentinite is dragged down to depths where antigorite is no longer stable. The Happo Ol CPO has a strong a-axis concentration perpendicular to the lineation and within the foliation—commonly referred to as B-type Ol CPO. Seismic fast directions parallel to the ocean trench are observed in many convergent margins and are consistent with the presence of B-type Ol CPO in the mantle wedge of these regions. Experimental work has shown that B-type CPO can form by dislocation creep under hydrous conditions at relatively high stresses. There are, however, several discrepancies between the characteristics of natural and laboratory samples with B-type Ol CPO. (1) The formation conditions (stress and temperature) of some natural examples with B-type CPO fall outside those predicted by experiments. (2) In deformation experiments, slip in the crystallographic c-axis direction is important but has not been observed in natural examples of B-type CPO. (3) Experimental work suggests the presence of H2O and either high shear stress or relatively low temperatures are essential for the formation of B-type CPO. These conditions are most likely to be achieved close to subduction boundaries, but these regions are also associated with serpentinization, which prevents strong olivine CPO patterns from forming. We show B-type Ol CPO can form as a result of static topotactic growth of olivine after high-temperature breakdown of foliated serpentinite. These results resolve the discrepancies between experimental and natural examples of B-type CPO and show the need to rethink the formation process of olivine CPO in convergent margins. Topotactic growth of olivine after antigorite can account for the inferred distribution of B-type Ol CPO in the mantle wedge more successfully than dislocation creep. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Two types of podiform chromitite, concordant and discordant, were examined in the mantle section of northern Oman ophiolite along Wadi Hilti, to revisit the structural classification of podiform chromitite. They are contrasted in mineral chemical characteristics, in addition to the difference in attitude; the Cr/(Cr+Al) atomic ratio of spinel is around 0.6 for the concordant chromitite and surrounding peridotites, but is around 0.7 for the discordant one and surrounding peridotites. Chromian spinel grains contain pargasite-rich inclusions of primary origin from the both types, but they are far less abundant and smaller in size in the concordant chromitite than in the discordant one. Thin lamellae of pyroxenes in chromian spinel, similar to those in ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) chromitites from Tibet, are available only from the concordant chromitite. The dunite enveloping the concordant chromitite is extraordinarily high in NiO (up to >0.5wt.%), suggesting subsolidus Ni diffusion from the chromitite. The involved melt was quite different between the two types of chromitite; the melt to precipitate the discordant one was more hydrous than that for the concordant one because of far more abundance of hydrous minerals in the former. The difference in duration of subsolidus cooling, and probably decompression, is prominent between the two types of chromitite. The concordant chromitite cannot be formed from the discordant one simply by metamorphic conversion: the former is of deep magmatic origin whereas the latter, of shallow magmatic origin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]