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The generation of felsic magmas in the oceanic crust: assimilation-fractional crystallization processes versus re-melting of the crust

Subject Area Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
Term from 2010 to 2015
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 158990368
 
Final Report Year 2015

Final Report Abstract

In our opinion the project was very successful and came up with some very good and important results. The sampling and analytical work went well and the two PhD students did a very good job collecting a large amount of data. The formation of felsic melts along the PAR and in the Troodos and Oman ophiolite show significant similarities and assimilation and fractional crystallization (AFC) of mafic magmas are the dominating processes. Significant volumes of mafic minerals and plagioclase are fractionated from the mafic magmas, most likely in very shallow melt lenses that appear to be abundant at fast spreading ridges. The AFC processes affect many incompatible element concentrations and apparently amphibole plays an important role in the crust. Fresh glassy lavas from the PAR show variable O isotope ratios and high Cl contents reflecting assimilation of hydrothermal material. Similar processes affect the O isotope compositions of quartz and zircon in felsic plutonic rocks from ophiolites implying that the interaction of stagnating magma with hydrothermally altered material is a typical process in the shallow oceanic crust. The shallow felsic intrusions in both ophiolites indicate multiple intrusions of magmas with different mantle sources that reflect the evolution of the ophiolite crust above a subducting slab.

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