The Origin of Olivine Basalts from Medvezhya Mount (Avachinsky Group of Volcanoes, Kamchatka): The Evidence for Assimilation of Sulfide-Bearing Cumulates

Abstract

The role and conditions of liquid immiscibility or crystallization of sulfide phase during evolution of subduction-related magmas remains a debated topic, which bears relevance to the genesis of porphyry copper deposits and evolution of the continental crust. We studied rare volcanic rocks with inclusions of magmatic sulfides in olivine—the basalts of Medvezhya Mount in the Avachinsky group of volcanoes. The rocks belong to primitive (Mg# = 66 mol %) middle-K island-arc olivine basalts. Olivine with normal zoning predominates (~98%) among phenocrysts. The olivine compositions are typical for Kamchatka basalts, except for an unusual trend of increase of MnO content from 0.20 to 0.55 wt % and decrease of Fe/Mn from 60 to 35 with a change of olivine composition from Fo_87.8 to Fo_78.2. Olivine of this group contains numerous inclusions of spinel-group minerals varying in composition from chromium spinel to magnesian magnetite. Olivine phenocrysts with sulfide inclusions are characterized by the absence of or weak reverse zoning and reduced contents of Ca, Ni, Mn, Cr, and Al. The estimated crystallization temperatures are 1036–1241°C for olivine of the prevailing type and 1010–1062°C for sulfide-bearing olivine. The data suggest that crystallization of the main olivine population occurred under relatively shallow conditions and was accompanied by strong magma oxidation. On the contrary, the zoning pattern and compositional features of sulfide-bearing olivine suggest its xenogenic origin and the probable crystallization under deep-crustal conditions from low-temperature water-rich and/or low-Ca magmas. The results obtained confirm the possibility of saturation of oxidized island-arc magmas with sulfide phase at lower crustal conditions, but show that this process is rare and not typical for low-pressure crystallization stage.