REE Geochemistry and Petrogenesis of Ultramafic Rocks of Chalk Hills, Salem

REE geochemistry of plagioclase-free, plagioclase-bearing and titanoclinohumite-bearing ultramafic suite of Chalk Hills is presented. The rare earth elements are determined by spark source mass-spectrography combined with a preanalytical chemical concentration reaching ± 4 accuracy and 0.01 ppm detection limit. Plagioclase-free ultramafics are 10 times LREE depleted. while HREE abundance is 1-2 times those of chondrite. Since the samples are not serpentinised, these REE patterns are considered to be primary and compare well with those of high temperature peridotites, particularly on Ce_N-Yb_N diagram. The plagioclase-bearing ultramafics and the gabbros have LREE contents 4-22 times chondritic, while the HREE varies from 2-12. The REE patterns of ultramafics from the smaller body show uniform increase in (La/Yb)_N ratios from 7 to 15. Higher abundance levels of incompatible alkali elements which do not correlate with the MgO contents, may suggest metasomatic introduction of these elements into the smaller body.

Petrogenetic modeling, based on partial melting of spinel peridotites as the source rocks with 2 times chondritic abundance, points towards the residual nature of the plagioclase-free ultramafics after extracting 8-10% of the melt. On the other band, the observed REE patterns of the plagioclase-bearing ultramafics and the gabbros not only indicate the absence of rocks more siliceous than syenogabbros but also suggest that they represent compositions of a depleted parent melt from which they originated. Thus the ultramafic association of Chalk Hills is distinctly different from the igneous suites associated with ophiolites and alpine peridotites.