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a b s t r a c tThe Archean Guelb el Azib layered complex (GAC) in the West African craton of Mauritania is composed of an association of serpentinites, chromitites, amphibolites and anorthosites with few fine-grained amphibolite dykes. The complex forms tectonic slices in 2.9-3.5 Ga TTG gneiss terrains in close association with supracrustal rocks (BIFs, impure marbles, amphibolites). It was affected by a main granulite-facies grade metamorphism (up to 900• C at 5-6 kbar) with subsequent retrogression in amphibolite and greenschist facies conditions.The preserved igneous macrostructures, the mineral compositions and the nature of relic magmatic assemblages have been used to constrain the composition of the parental melts and the conditions of crystallization. According to petrological observations and to comparison with experimental data, the formation of the complex can be explained by fractionation of a slightly hydrous high-alumina basaltic melt at low pressure. The early fractionation of olivine and the absence of massive clinopyroxene fractionation before plagioclase saturation led to crystallization of highly calcic plagioclase with Fe-, Al-rich but Cr-poor chromite from a hydrous tholeiitic parental magma, similar to worldwide Archean tholeiites.The complex shares many similarities with Archean anorthosite layered complexes, possibly formed in a supra-subduction zone environment according to results obtained on similar 2.9-3.0 Ga complexes from Greenland and India (namely Fiskenaesset and Sittampundi). Three phases of PGE mineralization affected the GAC chromitites: (i) igneous crystallization of laurite; (ii) formation of late magmatic IPGE sulpho-arsenides (irarsite-hollingworthite) and (iii) hydrothermal Pt-Pd mineralization represented by sperrylite and rustenburgite.

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The Limousin ophiolite is located at the suture zone between two major thrust sheets in the western French Massif Central. This ophiolitic section comprises mantle-harzburgite, mantle-dunite, wehrlites, troctolites and layered gabbros. It has recorded a static metamorphic event transforming the gabbros into undeformed amphibolites and the magmatic ultramafites into serpentinites and/or pargasite-bearing chloritites. With various thermobarometric methods, it is possible to show that the different varieties of amphibole have registered low-P (c. 0.2 GPa) conditions with temperature ranging from high-T, latemagmatic conditions to greenschist-zeolite metamorphic facies. The abundance of undeformed metamorphic rocks (which is typical of the lower oceanic crust), the occurrence of Ca-Al (-Mg) metasomatism illustrated by the growth of Ca-Al silicates in veins or replacing the primary magmatic minerals, the P-T conditions of the metamorphism and the numerous similarities with oceanic crustal rocks from Ocean Drilling Program and worldwide ophiolites are the main arguments for an ocean-floor hydrothermal metamorphism in the vicinity of a palaeo-ridge. Among the West-European Variscan ophiolites, the Limousin ophiolites constitute an extremely rare occurrence that has not been involved in any HP (subduction-related) or MP (orogenic) metamorphism as observed in other ophiolite occurrences (i.e. France, Spain and Germany).

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