Description: The Naein ophiolite is the most complete ophiolitic exposure in Cental Iran and considered as a remnant of the Mesozoic Central East Iranian microcontinent (CEIM) confining oceanic crust. In the northeastern part of this ophiolite (Darreh Deh area) within the mantle peridotites, a few hundred meters below the top of the Moho transition zone (MTZ), the hornblendites are present as dykes (former cracks and joints) from a few millimeters to nearly 50 cm wide. They have sharp boundaries with the surrounding mantle harzburgites and dunites. These hornblendites are pale green and coarse-grained in hand specimen and composed of magnesio-hornblende (Mg# = 0.93), chlorite (penninite and clinochlore, Mg# = 0.95), Cr-spinel (chromite, Cr# = 0.67 and Mg# = 0.55), tremolite, calcite and dolomite. Tremolites were formed by retrograde metamorphism of hornblendes. Calcite and dolomite occur as late-stage veins. Very high amount of primary hydrous phases (~94 vol % hornblende and chlorite), as well as peculiar mineralogical and chemical characteristics of the Naein ophiolite mantle hornblendites, do not match a magmatic origin. They are possibly products of the reaction between mantle peridotites and seawater-originated supercritical fluids, rich in silicate components. The presence of primary hydrous phases (hornblende and chlorite) may reveal high activity of H 2 O in the involved solution. The chemical composition of chromite in the hornblendites is near to the average chromite composition from the surrounding harzburgite and dunite. This suggests that the main source of Cr should be chromites of nearby peridotites, which were totally or partly dissolved by hydrothermal fluids. The positive anomaly of Eu in the chondrite-normalized REE patterns of hornblendes, high modal abundance of Ca-rich hornblende, as well as presence of calcite and dolomite, point to seawater ingression through the gabbros in to the uppermost mantle peridotites. The higher value of MgO than CaO, presence of high-Cr chromite and Cr-enrichment of hornblendes and chlorites indicate a higher contribution of peridotites rather than gabbros to the chemical characteristics of the involved fluids. This study shows that circulation of possibly seawater-derived high temperature hydrous fluids in the upper mantle can leach and provide necessary elements to form hornblendite in joints and cracks of the uppermost mantle.

Description: Quench products of melts synthesized at 5 GPa and 1500°C in model system CaMgSi 2 O 6 –Na 2 CO 3 (±CaCO 3 )–KCl, were studied using vibrational (IR and Raman) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES). Correlations between structural peculiarities of the quenches with chemical composition are established. Increase of the CaMgSi 2 O 6 content of the melts results in gradual substitution of the Са-bearing carbonate groups by Na-bearing, whereas Ca is progressively more bounded with silicate structural units. XANES spectra reveal that chlorine is predominantly present as (K x Na 1– x )Cl complexes. XANES spectra also indicate distribution of potassium cations between chloride and silicate groups, although its partial bonding with carbonate groups in the melt is not excluded.

Description: The problems of tectonic control of composition, size, and morphology of synkinematic crustal granitoids are discussed by the example of the Western Sangilen granites (South-East Tuva). Comparative analysis was performed for felsic bodies and massifs spatially confined to tectonic zone (Erzin shear zone): Erzin migmatite–granite complex (510–490 Ma), Matut granitoid massif (510–490 Ma), Bayankol polyphase gabbro-monzodiorite–granodiorite–granite massif (490–480 Ma), and the Nizhneulor Massif (480–470 Ma). It is shown that synkinematic felsic melts during the transition from collisional compression to transpression were formed at different crustal levels. An increase of shear component provided favorable conditions for the migration of felsic melts, increase of size and morphology of intrusive bodies from vein type to harploith (likely, loppoliths and laccoliths) and further to stocks. All kinematic granitoids of the Erzin tectonic zone are ascribed to the crustal S-type granites. Dispersion and average chemical composition of the synkinematic granites strongly depend on the degree of their “isolation” from protolith. From auto- and paraautochthonous granitoids to allochthonous granites, the compositional dispersion decreases and the chemical composition is displaced toward I-type magmatic rocks.

Description: Original authors’ data on the mineralogy and composition of melt inclusions in two samples show that the Early Eocene magmatic rocks at Cape Khairyuzova were formed by mixing melts of mafic, intermediate, and acid composition, which were derived from different sources. The mafic melt was rich in MgO, and its temperature was 1100–1150°C. The temperature of the acid melt varied from 1070 to 1130°C. The melts are also different in concentrations of trace elements and in their ratios. All three melt types are enriched in LILE and LREE and depleted in HFSE and were likely derived in suprasubductional environments. The mafic and intermediate magmas were formed by melting a mantle wedge and subsequent fractionation of the melts. The acid melts could be formed by melting crustal rocks when they were overheated in the newly formed orogen of significant thickness. When ascending, the mantle melts could mix in variable proportions with acid melts in crustal chambers.

Description: This paper focuses on the occurrences of tholeiitic magmatism in the northeastern Fennoscandian shield. It was found that numerous dolerite dikes of the Pechenga, Barents Sea, and Eastern Kola swarms were formed 380–390 Ma ago, i.e., directly before the main stage of the Paleozoic alkaline magmatism of the Kola province. The isotope geochemical characteristics of the dolerites suggest that their primary melts were derived from the mantle under the conditions of the spinel lherzolite facies. The depleted mantle material from which the tholeiites were derived shows no evidence for metasomatism and enrichment in high fieldstrength and rare earth elements, whereas melanephelinite melts postdating the tholeiites were generated in an enriched source. It was shown that the relatively short stage of mantle metasomatism directly after the emplacement of tholeiitic magmas was accompanied by significant mantle fertilization. In contrast to other large igneous provinces, where pulsed intrusion of large volumes of tholeiitic magmas coinciding or alternating with phases of alkaline magmatism was documented, the Kola province is characterized by systematic evolution of the Paleozoic plume–lithosphere process with monotonous deepening of the level of magma generation, development of mantle metasomatism and accompanying fertilization of mantle materials, and systematic changes in the composition of melts reaching the surface.

Description: Several types of metabasites of different age were identified in the southern part of Pezhostrov Island: eclogites with a magmatic protolith age of about 2200 Ma and 2500 Ma old metagabbroanorthosites that retained no eclogitic assemblage. It is shown that the Paleoproterozoic eclogites dominate volumetrically over Archean eclogites in the Belomorian eclogitic province. Eclogites with the youngest Jatulian protolith age (no older than 2200 Ma) occur with the same frequency as those with the Archean protolith age. A new find of eclogites with a Paleoproterozoic age of magmatic protolith and generalization of accumulated geochronological data confirm the recognition of an extended zone of high-pressure metamorphism with an age around 1900 Ma in the Belomorian mobile belt.

Description: The paper presents data on inclusions in minerals of the least modified potassic lamprophyres in a series of strongly carbonatized potassic alkaline ultramafic porphyritic rocks. The rocks consist of diopside, kaersutite, analcime, apatite, and rare phlogopite and titanite phenocrysts and a groundmass, which is made up, along with these minerals, of potassic feldspar and calcite. The diopside and kaersutite phenocrysts display unsystematic multiple zoning. Chemically and mineralogically, the rock is ultramafic foidite and most likely corresponds to monchiquite. Primary and secondary melt inclusions were found in diopside, kaersutite, apatite, and titanite phenocrysts and are classified into three types: sodic silicate inclusions with analcime, potassic silicate inclusions with potassic feldspar, and carbonate inclusions, which are dominated by calcite. Heating and homogenization of the inclusions show that the potassic lamprophyres crystallized from a heterogeneous magma, with consisted of mixing mafic sodic and potassic alkaline magmas enriched in a carbonatite component. The composition of the magmas was close to nepheline and leucite melanephelinite. The minerals crystallized at 1150–1090°C from the sodic melts and at 1200–1250°C from the potassic ones. The sodic mafic melts were richer in Fe than the potassic ones, were the richest in Al, Mn, SO 3 , Cl, and H 2 O and poorer in Ti and P. The potassic mafic melts were not lamproitic, as follows from the presence of albite in the crystallized primary potassic melt inclusions. The diopside, the first mineral to crystallize in the rock, started to crystallize in the magmatic chamber from sodic mafic melt and ended to crystallize from mixed sodic–potassic melts. The potassic mafic melts were multiply replenished in the chamber in relation to tectonic motions. The ascent of the melts to the surface and rapidly varying P–T parameters of the magma were favorable for multiple separations of carbonatite melts from the alkaline mafic ones and their mixing and mingling.

Description: New data are reported on U-Pb (SHRIMP-II) age (2662 ± 7 Ma), isotope (Sm-Nd) and geochemical compositions of the anorthosites of the Patchemvarek Massif and “ovoidal” anorthosite sills of the Neoarchean Kolmozero-Voron’ya greenstone belt. Mesoarchean (2938 ± 8 Ma) zircons found in the Patchemvarek anorthosite have low Th/U ratio, are overgrown by a thin rim, and may be interpreted as xenogenic crystals assimilated by primary melts of the gabbro-anorthosite massifs from host Mesoarchean tonalites during crystallization in a magmatic chamber. The “ovoidal” anorthosite sills are dated at 2730–2740 Ma on the basis of U-Pb local zircon isotope analysis. The sills of the “ovoidal” anorthosites in the Kolmozero-Voron’ya GSB represent the older (2730–2740 Ma) rock group, which differs from the Patchemvarek anorthosites in strongly depleted Nd isotope composition and some geochemical features. In terms of age and Sm-Nd isotope characteristics, the “ovoidal” anorthosites are close to the komatiites of the lower volcanogenic sequence (ε Nd (Т) + 3.0–3.2), and metaandesites (2778 ± 5.4 Ma, U-Pb TIMS, ε Nd Т + 3.5) and metatholeiites of the upper volcanogenic sequence (ε Nd (Т) + 3.5–3.7) of the supracrustal complex of the Kolmozero-Voron’ya GSB.

Description: The paper reports detailed data on phlogopite from kimberlite of three facies types in the Arkhangelsk Diamondiferous Province (ADP): (i) massive magmatic kimberlite (Ermakovskaya-7 Pipe), (ii) transitional type between massive volcaniclastic and magmatic kimberlite (Grib Pipe), and (iii) volcanic kimberlite (Karpinskii-1 and Karpinskii-2 pipes). Kimberlite from the Ermakovskaya-7 Pipe contains only groundmass phlogopite. Kimberlite from the Grib Pipe contains a number of phlogopite populations: megacrysts, macrocrysts, matrix phlogopite, and this mineral in xenoliths. Phlogopite macrocrysts and matrix phlogopite define a single compositional trend reflecting the evolution of the kimberlite melt. The composition points of phlogopite from the xenoliths lie on a single crystallization trend, i.e., the mineral also crystallized from kimberlite melt, which likely actively metasomatized the host rocks from which the xenoliths were captured. Phlogopite from volcaniclastic kimberlite from the Karpinskii-1 and Karpinskii-2 pipes does not show either any clearly distinct petrographic setting or compositional differentiation. The kimberlite was dated by the Rb–Sr technique on phlogopite and additionally by the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar method. Because it is highly probable that phlogopite from all pipes crystallized from kimberlite melt, the crystallization age of the kimberlite can be defined as 376 ± 3 Ma for the Grib Pipe, 380 ± 2 Ma for the Karpinskii-1 pipe, 375 ± 2 Ma for the Karpinskii-2 Pipe, and 377 ± 0.4 Ma for the Ermakovskaya-7 Pipe. The age of the pipes coincides within the error and suggests that the melts of the pipes were emplaced almost simultaneously. Our geochronologic data on kimberlite emplacement in ADP lie within the range of 380 ± 2 to 375 ± Ma and coincide with most age values for Devonian alkaline–ultramafic complexes in the Kola Province: 379 ± 5 Ma; Arzamastsev and Wu, 2014). These data indicate that the kimberlite was formed during the early evolution of the Kola Province, when alkaline–ultramafic complexes (including those with carbonatite) were emplaced.

Description: This paper reports the results of geological, geochronological, and isotope geochemical investigations of two premetamorphic granite massifs of the Goloustnaya block of the Baikal salient of the basement of the Siberian craton and granite gneisses from the migmatite–gneiss sequence of this block. The U–Pb zircon age of the granites of the Khomut massif is 2153 ± 11 Ma. The age of the Elovka massif was previously determined by us as 2018 ± 28 Ma. The Khomut and Elovka granites underwent structural and metamorphic transformations accompanied by migmatization. An age of 1.98–1.97 Ga was obtained for the structural and metamorphic processes in the Goloustnaya block from the analysis of margins of zircon grains from the Khomut granites and zircon from the granite gneisses. The biotite granites of the Khomut massif show transitional I–S-type geochemical characteristics, which allowed us to suggest that they were derived by melting of a crustal source of intermediate–acid composition. The Khomut granites show positive ε Nd (T) values from +2.0 to +2.2 and a Nd model age of 2.4 Ga, which may indicate their formation owing to the reworking of the Paleoproterozoic juvenile continental crust. The combined isotope geochemical data are consistent with collision of island arcs as a possible environment for the formation of the Khomut granites. The formation of these granites was not related to the development of the structure of the Siberian craton, similar to a few other anorogenic magmatic complexes of the margin of the Chara–Olekma terrane of the Aldan shield with ages of ~2.2–2.1 Ga, including the granites of the Katugin complex. The biotite–amphibole granites of the Elovka massif with an age of ~2.02 Ga are geochemically similar to I-type granites. The geochemical characteristics of these granites, including elevated Sr and Ba and low Nb and Ta contents, were inherited from a subduction-related source. Negative ε Nd (T) values from–0.9 to–1.8 and rather high contents of K 2 O and Th allow us to suppose a metamagmatic crustal source for the granites of the Elovka massif. The combined isotope geochemical characteristics of the Elovka granites suggest that a mature island arc or an active continental margin is the most probable environment of their formation. The estimates of the age of structural and metamorphic processes affecting the Goloustnaya block (1.98–1.97 Ga) coinciding with the time of similar transformations in the central part of the Aldan shield and eastern Anabar shield (1.99–1.96 Ga) indicate wide occurrence of collisional events of similar age in the Siberian craton and allow us to consider this age interval as an early large-scale stage of the formaiton of the structure of the Siberian craton.