Genetic Link between Podiform Chromitites in the Mantle and Stratiform Chromitites in the Crust: A Hypothesis

Abstract

No genetic link between the two main types of chromitite, stratiform and podiform chromitites, has ever been discussed. These two types of chromitite have very different geological contexts; the stratiform one is a member of layered intrusions, representing fossil magma chambers, in the crust, and the podiform one forms pod-like bodies, representing fossil magma conduits, in the upper mantle. Chromite grains contain peculiar polymineralic inclusions derived from Na-bearing hydrous melts, whose features are so similar between the two types that they may form in a similar fashion. The origin of the chromite-hosted inclusions in chromitites has been controversial but left unclear. The chromite-hosted inclusions also characterize the products of the peridotite–melt reaction or melt-assisted partial melting, such as dunites, troctolites and even mantle harzburgites. I propose a common origin for the inclusion-bearing chromites, i.e., a reaction between the mantle peridotite and magma. Some of the chromite grains in the stratiform chromitite originally formed in the mantle through the peridotite–magma reaction, possibly as loose-packed young podiform chromitites, and were subsequently disintegrated and transported to a crustal magma chamber as suspended grains. It is noted, however, that the podiform chromitites left in the mantle beneath the layered intrusions are different from most of the podiform chromitites now exposed in the ophiolites.

Hydrothermal alteration of chromitite-dunite pairs from the Sabzevar ophiolite (NE Iran): Chemical and nano-textural evolution of Cr-spinel

“…Chromian spinel (Cr-spinel) is a common accessory mineral in igneous mafic and ultramafic rocks. Mantle section of ophiolite may host accumulation of Cr-spinel as podiform and/or stratiform bodies (e.g., Augé, 1987;Lorand and Ceuleneer, 1989;Gauthier et al, 1990;Borisova et al, 2012;González-Jiménez et al, 2014;Arai and Miura, 2016;Arai, 2021). These bodies are usually separated from the host harzburgite by a dunite envelope of variable thickness from a few centimeters to several meters (e.g., González-Jiménez et al, 2014;Arai and Miura, 2016).…”