Evolution of lithospheric mantle in the north of Nain‐Baft oceanic crust (Neo‐Tethyan ophiolite of Ashin, Central Iran)

This study is focused on a plagioclase-bearing spinel lherzolite from Chah Loqeh area in the Neo-Tethyan Ashin ophiolite. It is exposed along the west of left-lateral strike-slip Dorouneh Fault in the northwest of Central-East Iranian Microcontinent. Mineral chemistry (Mg#(olivine) < similar to 90, Cr#(clinopyroxene) < similar to 0.2, Cr#(spinel) < similar to 0.5, Al2O3orthopyroxene > similar to 2.5 wt%, Al2O3clinopyroxene > similar to 4.5 wt%, Al2O3spinel > similar to 41.5 wt %, Na2Oclinopyroxene > similar to 0.11 wt%, and TiO2clinopyroxene > similar to 0.04 wt%) confirms Ashin lherzolite was originally a mid-oceanic ridge peridotite with low degrees of partial melting at spinel-peridotite facies in a lithospheric mantle level. However, some Ashin lherzolites record mantle upwelling and tectonic exhumation at plagioclase-peridotite facies during oceanic extension and diapiric motion of mantle along Nain-Baft suture zone. This mantle upwelling is evidenced by some modifications in the modal composition (i.e. subsolidus recrystallization of plagioclase and olivine between pyroxene and spinel) and mineral chemistry (e.g. increase in TiO2 and Na2O of clinopyroxene, and TiO2 and Cr# of spinel and decrease in Mg# of olivine), as a consequence of decompression during a progressive upwelling of mantle. Previous geochronological and geochemical data and increasing the depth of subsolidus plagioclase formation at plagioclase-peridotite facies from Nain ophiolite (similar to 16 km) to Ashin ophiolite (similar to 35 km) suggest a south to north closure for the Nain-Baft oceanic crust in the northwest of Central-East Iranian Microcontinent.