Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Cerro del Almirez massif (Nevado–Filábride Complex, Betic Cordillera, SE Spain) is composed of antigorite (Atg-) serpentinite and chlorite (Chl-) harzburgite separated by a thin reaction front formed in a palaeo-subduction setting. These ultramafic rocks preserve unique prograde structures related to the pre- and peak high-pressure event (1.6–1.9 GPa and 680–710 °C). The oldest subduction-related structures are preserved in Atg-serpentinites: a penetrative S1 foliation and associated L1 stretching lineation that formed in a non-coaxial regime with a top-to-the-W sense of shear. This planar–linear fabric is crosscut by olivine ± Ti-clinohumite veins, formed during the prograde breakdown of brucite and pre-metamorphic clinopyroxene, which form a system of veins decimetres long. They record embrittlement processes due to the release of 6 vol.% of H2O associated with brucite dehydration. The growth of prograde olivine and/or tremolite porphyroblasts is syn- to post-kinematic in relation to the S1 foliation. Further reactions at higher temperature related to the complete breakdown of the Atg (i.e. Atg-out) are post-kinematic to S1. Prograde Chl-harzburgite is crosscut by sets of conjugate zones associated with grain-size reduction of olivine grains. These grain-size reduction zones are interpreted as brittle structures generated by hydrofracturing due to overpressure fluids in a compressional setting at low-differential stresses.Structures related to the exhumation process are mainly preserved in the metasedimentary host rock, where an S2/L2 planar–linear fabric developed within a shear zone dominated by a non-coaxial regime with a top-to-the-W sense of movement in a transpressional regime. Peak metamorphic conditions deduced for the schists are similar in pressure (1.3–1.9 GPa) but lower in temperature (560–590 °C) compared to the ultramafic rocks in contact with them, suggesting a major shear zone at the base of the ultramafic massif during D2 deformation in a right-handed transpressional regime.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-01172303
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01172303
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2014.12.022

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Serpentinites form by hydration of mantle peridotite and constitute the largest potential reservoir of fluid-mobile elements entering subduction zones. Isotope ratios of one such element, boron, distinguish fluid contributions from crustal versus serpentinite sources. Despite 85% of boron hosted within abyssal peridotite being lost at the onset of subduction at the lizardite-to-antigorite transition, a sufficient cargo of boron to account for the composition of island arc magma is retained (c. 7 μg g− 1, with a δ11B of + 22‰) until the down-going slab reaches the antigorite-out isograd. At this point a 11B-rich fluid, capable of providing the distinctive δ11B signature of island arc basalts, is released. Beyond the uniquely preserved antigorite-out isograd in serpentinites from Cerro del Almirez, Betic Cordillera, Spain, the prograde lithologies (antigorite–chlorite–orthopyroxene–olivine serpentinite, granofels-texture chlorite-harzburgite and spinifex-texture chlorite-harzburgite) have very different boron isotope signatures (δ11B = − 3 to + 6‰), but with no significant difference in boron concentration compared to the antigorite-serpentinite on the low P–T side of the isograd. 11B-rich fluid, which at least partly equilibrated with pelagic sediments, is implicated in the composition of these prograde lithologies, which dehydrated under open-system conditions. Serpentinite-hosted boron lost during the early stages of dehydration is readily incorporated into forearc peridotite. This, in turn, may be dragged to sub-arc depths as a result of subduction erosion and incorporated in a mélange comprising forearc serpentinite, altered oceanic crust and pelagic sediment. At the antigorite-out isograd it dehydrates, thus potentially providing an additional source of 11B-rich fluids.
ISSN: 0009-2541

hal-01172276
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01172276
DOI : 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2014.03.015

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Garnet growth in high-pressure, mafic garnet granulites formed by dehydration melting of hornblende-gabbronorite protoliths in the Jijal complex (Kohistan palaeo-island arc complex, north Pakistan) was investigated through a microstructural EBSD-SEM and HRTEM study. Composite samples preserve a sharp transition in which the low-pressure precursor is replaced by garnet through a millimetre-sized reaction front. A magmatic foliation in the gabbronorite is defined by mafic-rich layering, with an associated magmatic lineation defined by the shape-preferred orientation (SPO) of mafic clusters composed of orthopyroxene (Opx), clinopyroxene (Cpx), amphibole (Amp) and oxides. The shape of the reaction front is convoluted and oblique to the magmatic layering. Opx, Amp and, to a lesser extent, Cpx show a strong lattice-preferred orientation (LPO) characterized by an alignment of [001] axes parallel to the magmatic lineation in the precursor hornblende-gabbronorite. Product garnet (Grt) also displays a strong LPO. Two of the four < 111 > axes are within the magmatic foliation plane and the density maximum is subparallel to the precursor magmatic lineation. The crystallographic relationship < 111 >(Grt)//[001](Opx,Cpx,Amp) deduced from the LPO was confirmed by TEM observations. The sharp and discontinuous modal and compositional variations observed at the reaction front attest to the kinetic inhibition of prograde solid-state reactions predicted by equilibrium-phase diagrams. The P-T field for the equilibration of Jijal garnet granulites shows that the reaction affinities are 5-10 kJ mol.(-1) for the Grt-in reaction and 0-5 kJ mol.(-1) for the Opx-out reaction. Petrographic and textural observations indicate that garnet first nucleated on amphibole at the rims of mafic clusters; this topotactic replacement resulted in a strong LPO of garnet. Once the amphibole was consumed in the reaction, the parallelism of [001] axes of the mafic-phase reactants favoured the growth of garnet crystals with similar orientations over a pyroxene substrate. These aggregates eventually sintered into single-crystal garnet. In the absence of deformation, the orientation of mafic precursor phases conditioned the nucleation site and the crystallographic orientation of garnet because of topotaxial transformation reactions and homoepitaxial growth of garnet during the formation of high-pressure, mafic garnet-granulite after low-pressure mafic protoliths.
ISSN: 0263-4929

hal-00411323
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411323
DOI : 10.1111/J.1525-1314.2008.00789.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Before attaining the mantle wedge, where they trigger partial melting, volatiles released from dehydration reactions in the slab have to migrate across a relatively cold (<750 degrees C), peridotite-layer above the incoming slab. In order to unravel the mechanisms allowing for this initial stage of fluid transport, we performed a detailed field and microstructural study of metamorphic prograde peridotites in the Cerro del Almirez ultramafic massif (Betic Cordillera, Spain), where evidences of one of the most important dehydration reactions in subduction zones, the high-pressure antigorite breakdown (P = 1.6-1.9 GPa and T approximate to 680 degrees C), can be mapped in the field. This reaction led to arborescent growth of centimeter-size olivine and orthopyroxene, producing a chlorite-harzburgite with a spinifex-like texture. Microstructural observations and crystal preferred (CPO) mapping show no evidences of solid-state deformation during the prograde growth of olivine and orthopyroxene at the expenses of antigorite. However, a few tens to a hundred meters away from the reaction front, the metamorphic texture is partially obliterated by grain-size reduction in roughly planar conjugate zones, a few mm to meters wide. Grain size reduction zones (GSRZ) are characterized by (1) sharp contacts with undeformed spinifex-like texture domains, (2) important reduction of the olivine grain size (60-250 mu m), (3) olivine color change from brownish to colorless, (4) decrease in the modal amount of orthopyroxene, and (5) at the mm- to cm-scale, irregular shapes and abrupt terminations. Field and microstructural observations exclude that relative displacement took place across these GSRZ. Changes in modal composition imply reactions with fluids undersaturated in silica. Analysis of olivine crystal-preferred orientations (CPO) in GSRZ shows patterns similar, but more dispersed, than those in neighboring spinifex-like domains. It also reveals mm- to cm-scale discrete domains with rather homogeneous crystallographic orientations suggesting inheritance from the preexisting spinifex-like olivines in the host peridotite. Misorientation angles between neighboring grains in the GSRZ show peaks at similar to 5-10 degrees and similar to 20 degrees, but rotations are not crystallographically controlled. Based on these observations, we rule out the formation of the GSRZ by dynamic recrystallization during dislocation creep and propose that they record brittle deformation (microcraking) of the spinifex-like chlorite-harzburgite, probably induced by hydrofracturing at high pressure and relative low temperature conditions (680-710 degrees C). High-pressure hydrofracturing can, thus, be invoked as an efficient mechanism for fluid flow across the cold top-slab mantle layer, hence allowing the slab-derived fluids to ingress in the wedge.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00534035
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00534035
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2010.06.029

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag (Germany) Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
The Cerro del Almirez massif (Spain) represents a unique fragment of serpentinized oceanic lithosphere that has been first equilibrated in the antigorite stability field (Atg-serpentinites) and then dehydrated into chlorite–olivine–orthopyroxene (Chl-harzburgites) at eclogite facies conditions during subduction. The massif preserves a dehydration front between Atg-serpentinites and Chl-harzburgites. It constitutes a suitable place to study redox changes in serpentinites and the nature of the released fluids during their dehydration. Relative to abyssal serpentinites, Atg-serpentinites display a low Fe3+/FeTotal(BR) (=0.55) and magnetite modal content (=2.8–4.3 wt%). Micro-X-ray absorption near-edge structure (μ-XANES) spectroscopy measurements of serpentines at the Fe–K edge show that antigorite has a lower Fe3+/FeTotal ratio (=0.48) than oceanic lizardite/chrysotile assemblages. The onset of Atg-serpentinites dehydration is marked by the crystallization of a Fe3+-rich antigorite (Fe3+/FeTotal = 0.6–0.75) in equilibrium with secondary olivine and by a decrease in magnetite amount (=1.6–2.2 wt%). This suggests a preferential partitioning of Fe3+ into serpentine rather than into olivine. The Atg-breakdown is marked by a decrease in Fe3+/FeTotal(BR) (=0.34–0.41), the crystallization of Fe2+-rich phases and the quasi-disappearance of magnetite (=0.6–1.4 wt.%). The observation of Fe3+-rich hematite and ilmenite intergrowths suggests that the O2 released by the crystallization of Fe2+-rich phases could promote hematite crystallization and a subsequent increase in fo2 inside the portion of the subducted mantle. Serpentinite dehydration could thus produce highly oxidized fluids in subduction zones and contribute to the oxidization of the sub-arc mantle wedge.
ISSN: 0010-7999

hal-01172310
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01172310
DOI : 10.1007/s00410-015-1130-y