Petrogenesis of the Late Cretaceous Tholeiitic Volcanism and Oceanic Island Arc Affinity of the Chagai Arc, Western Pakistan

The Late Cretaceous Chagai arc outcrops in western Pakistan, southern Afghanistan and eastern Iran. It is in the Tethyan convergence zone, formed by northward subduction of the Arabian oceanic plate beneath the Afghan block. The oldest unit of the Chagai arc is the Late Cretaceous Sinjrani Volcanic Group. This is composed of porphyritic lava flows and volcaniclastic rocks, and subordinate shale, sandstone, limestone and chert. The flows are fractionated low-K tholeiitic basalts, basaltic- andesites, and andesites. Relative enrichment in their LILE and depletion in HFSE, and negative Nb and Ta and positive K, Ba and Sr anomalies point to a subduction-related origin. Compared to MORB, the least fractionated Chagai basalts have low Na2O, Fe2O3^T, CaO, Ti, Zr, Y and ^87Sr/^86Sr. Rather than an Andean setting, these results suggest derivation from a highly depleted mantle in an intraoceanic arc formed by Late Cretaceous convergence in the Ceno-Tethys. The segmented subduction zone formed between Gondwana and a collage of small continental blocks （Iran, Afghan, Karakoram, Lhasa and Burma） was accompanied by a chain of oceanic island arcs and suprasubduction ophiolites including Semail, Zagros, Chagai-Raskoh, Kandahar, Muslim Bagh, Waziristan and Kohistan-Ladakh, Nidar, Nagaland and Manipur. These complexes accreted to the southern margin of Eurasia in the Late Cretaceous.

Petrogenesis of Late Cretaceous Volcanism in Kazhaba Area and Its Relationship with Mantle Plume Activity of Reunion Hotspot

Basaltic pillow lavas near the Kazhaba village in Balochistan are found in the tectonic slivers of the Bagh complex： the melange zone beneath the Muslim Bagh ophiolite complex. These volcanics are mainly represented by alkali basalts. The petrography and chemistry suggest that these volcanic rocks belong to mildly to strongly alkaline, intra-plate volcanic rock series. Their low Mg~# and low Cr, Ni and Co contents suggest that the parent magma of these volcanics was not directly derived from a partially melted mantle source, but resulted fractionation in an upper level magma chamber, en-route to eruption. Their LILE and HFSE, enriched primordial mantle-normalized patterns with marked positive Nb anomalies further confirm their within-plate geochemical signatures and are consistent with an enriched mantle source. Their highly enriched LREE patterns and high（La/Yb）_N and（Ce/Yb）_N ratios suggest a partially melted garnet-lherzolite parent magma source. The Zr versus Zr/Y studies suggest that these volcanics were derived from about 15% partially melted enriched mantle source. It is suggested that these Late Cretaceous intra-plate volcanics may represent the mantle plume activity of the Reunion hotspot, and were erupted during the passage of Ceno-Tethys Ocean floor prior to the passage of Indian Plate over it.

Petrogenesis of Middle Triassic Volcaniclastic Rocks from Balochistan,Pakistan:Implications for the Break-Up of Gondwanaland

Basaltic volcanic conglomerates near the Wulgai village in Balochistan occur in the undivided sedimentary rock unit of the Bagh complex which is the mélange zone beneath the Muslim Bagh ophiolite. The presence of Middle Triassic grey radiolarian chert within the upper and lower horizon of the conglomerates suggests that the lavas, from which these conglomerates were principally derived, were eroded and re-deposited in the Middle Triassic. The Wulgai conglomerate contains several textural and mineralogical varieties of volcanic rocks, such as porphyritic, glomerophyric, intersertal and vitrophyric basalts. The main minerals identified in these samples are augite, olivine, plagioclase（An35–78） leucite and nosean, with apatite ilmenite, magnetite and hematite occurring as accessory minerals. These rocks are mildly to strongly-alkaline with low Mg~# and low Cr, Ni and Co contents suggesting that their parent magma had undergone considerable fractionation prior to eruption. Trace element-enriched mantle-normalized patterns with marked positive Nb anomalies are consistent with 10%–15% melting of an enriched mantle source in a within-plate tectonic setting. It is proposed that this Middle Triassic intra-plate volcanism may represent mantle plume-derived melts related to the Late Triassic rifting of micro-continental blocks（including Afghan, Iran, Karakorum and Lhasa） from the northern margin of Gondwana.

Genesis of Manganese Deposits in the Ali Khanzai Block of the Zhob Ophiolite,Pakistan:Inferences from Geochemistry and Mineralogy

The Zhob ophiolite comprises the Naweoba, Omzha and Ali Khanzai blocks, which are surrounded by the sediments of the Alozai Group and Loralai Formation. The Ali Khanzai Block contains metamorphic, ultramafic, gabbroic, volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks with associated chert. The Zhob manganese deposits found in the Ali Khanzai Block, occur in banded, lenticular and massive forms within red to brown coloured metachert. Braunite and pyrolusite are the main constituent manganese-bearing minerals with minor hausmannite, hematite and barite while quartz is the major gangue mineral with some carbonate minerals. Geochemical evidence from the major oxides indicates that the manganese mineralization and associated metachert at Zhob were formed by hydrothermal activity with little contribution from contemporaneous volcanic materials and this is confirmed by high Fe/Mn and low Co/Zn ratios and trace element patterns. These deposits formed along with seafloor spreading centres and were later obducted as part of Ali Khanzai Block of Zhob ophiolite.