Abstract
Ophiolites exposed across the western Tauride belt in Turkey represent tectonically emplaced fragments of oceanic lithosphere obducted onto the continental margin following the closure of the Neotethys Ocean during the Late Cretaceous. The ultramafic massif of Köycegiz, which is located in the ophiolitic belt of southwestern Turkey, is a major source of metallurgical chromitite ore. The massif comprises a base of tectonized harzburgite with minor dunite overlain by a magmatic sequence of wehrlite, pyroxenite, troctolite and gabbro. Only sparse refractory chromitites occur within the harzburgites; in contrast, the upper and middle sections of the peridotite sequence contain abundant metallurgical chromitites. The peridotites record abundant evidence of mantle metasomatism on various scales, as the Fo values of olivine in harzburgite are 90.1–95.4, whereas those in dunite are 90.1–91.8. The compositions of the melts passing through the peridotites changed gradually from arc tholeiite to boninite due to melt-rock reactions, thus producing more Cr-rich chromitites in the upper part of the body. Most of the chromitites have high Cr numbers (77–78), although systematic changes in the compositions of the olivine and chromian spinel occur from the harzburgites to the dunite envelopes to the chromitites, reflecting melt-rock reactions. The calculated ∆logfO2 (FMQ) values range from − 2.77 to + 1.03 in the chromitites, − 2.73 to -0.01 in the harzburgites, and − 1.65 to + 0.45 in the dunites. All of the available evidence suggests that the Köycegiz ophiolite formed in a supra-subduction zone (SSZ) mantle wedge. These models indicate that the harzburgites represent the products of first-stage melting and low degrees of melt–rock interaction that occurred in a mid-ocean ridge (MOR) environment. In contrast, the chromitites and dunites represent the products of second-stage melting and related refertilization, which occurred in an SSZ environment.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Wenda Zhou for assistance and the Key Laboratory for Continental Tectonics and Dynamics, Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, China and the China National Research Center, for the geochemical analyses. İbrahim Uysal, Dirk Spengler, an anonymous reviewer and journal editor Shah Wali Faryad are thanked for their comments and suggestions that helped to improve the manuscript. This research was funded by grants from Sinoprobe-05-02 and 201511022 from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Science Foundation of China (grants 41502062, 41672046, 41541017 and 41641015), the China Geological Survey (grants 1212010918013 and 12120114061801), project J1526 of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, and the International Geosciences Program, project 649.
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Xiong, F., Yang, J., Dilek, Y. et al. Petrology and geochemistry of the high-Cr podiform chromitites of the Köycegiz ophiolite, southwest Turkey: implications for the multi-stage evolution of the oceanic upper mantle. Miner Petrol 112, 685–704 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-018-0560-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-018-0560-4