DISCOVERY OF FERROPICRITES AND HIGH-MAGNESIAN ANDESITES FROM THE ERDENETSOGT FORMATION, CENTRAL MONGOLIA

Abstract

New geochemical and petrological results are presented for greenstones from the Erdenetsogt Formation hosted by the Tsetserleg accretionary terrane in the Hangay region, with particular emphasis on newly found picritic and andesitic rocks. These rocks occur mostly in the lower portion of the Erdenetsogt Formation as massive lavas, sills, and dykes closely associated with varicolored bedded ribbon cherts and siltstones. The protoliths of the studied greenstones comprise (1) plume-derived tholeiitic greenstones with oceanic plateau basalt affinity, (2) arc-derived, calc-alkaline andesites. The plume-derived rocks are characterized by chemical signatures such as slight LREE enrichment similar to that of tholeiitic OIB and the existence of ferropicrite with high FeO* (>14 wt%) and MgO (12–22 wt%), which is characteristic of large igneous provinces (LIPs), including oceanic plateaus. Therefore, their tholeiitic composition and high-Fe and -Ti contents require melting of the source mantle peridotite with addition of some recycled Fe- and Ti-rich basaltic material. The andesites are characterized by glassy texture, high MgO content (up to 7 wt%), and significant LREE enrichment with depletion in Nb and resemble sanukite type of high-magnesian andesite (HMAs). We infer that the Hangay tholeiitic greenstones probably represent an accreted upper section of an oceanic plateau that developed in the deep-water region of the Hangay-Henteypaleo-ocean in the Upper Silurian-Lower Devonian. The Hangay HMAs may have been produced by subduction of young oceanic plate after an oceanward back-stepping of the subduction zone that was a result of the collision during the Carboniferous of the oceanic plateau and the active continental margin of the Central Mongolian Massif.