Highlights  Petrographic, major-and trace element and Sr-isotope characterization of a hydrothermal fault zone in the lower gabbroic crust, Samail ophiolite Oman.  Mass balance calculations show significant losses of Si, Ca, Al, Rb, Sr and gains of H2O, Cu, Zn, Ba and U during hydrothermal alteration.  Silica solubility considerations indicate high fluid/rock ratios up to 450:1-900:1.  Fault zone is a fossilized discharge zone of upwelling hydrothermal fluids in the deep plutonic rocks of ancient fast spreading ocean crust.  Mass changes extrapolated to global elemental fluxes indicate that a lower crustal fault zone contributes significantly to the global hydrothermal budget of Si,

Hydrothermal veins and dykelets that cross-cut layered olivine gabbros deep in the plutonic section of the Samail Ophiolite, Sultanate of Oman, point towards the occurrence of hydrothermal circulation in the deep oceanic crust, and these features record interactions between rock and high temperature seawater-derived fluids or brines. Deep penetration of seawater-derived fluids down to 100 m above the Moho transition zone and the consequent interactions with the host rock lead to hydrothermal alteration from granulite facies grading down to greenschist facies conditions. Here we present a study of veins and dykelets formed by hydrothermal interaction cutting layered gabbro in the Wadi Wariyah, using petrographic, microanalytical, isotopic, and structural methods. We focus on amphiboles, which show a conspicuous compositional variation from high-Ti magnesiohastingsite and pargasite via magnesiohornblende and edenite, to Cl-rich ferropargasite and hastingsite (up to 1.5 a.p.f.u. Cl) and actinolite. These minerals record a wide range of formation conditions from magmatic to hydrothermal, and reveal a complex history of interactions between rock and hydrothermal fluid or brine in a lower oceanic crustal setting. Large variations in Cl content and cation configurations in amphibole suggest formation in equilibrium with fluids of different salinities at variable fluid/rock ratios. The presence of subsolidus amphibole extremely enriched in chlorine implies phase separation and brine/rock interactions. 87 Sr /86 Sr values of 0.7031 to 0.7039 and stable δ 18 O isotopic compositions of 4.1 to 5.6 ‰ of the different amphibole types suggest a rock-dominated environment, i.e. with low fluid/rock ratios. However, the slight departure from mean Oman isotope values may indicate there was some influence of seawater in the aforementioned fluid-rock interactions. Our study provides new petrological data for the subsolidus evolution of gabbro-hosted amphibole-rich veins in the presence of a seawater-derived fluid.

We analyzed the physical properties of altered mafic and ultramafic rocks drilled at the Atlantis Massif (Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, 30°N; Integrated Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions 304‐305 and 357). Our objective was to find a physical property that allows direct distinction between these lithologies using remote geophysical methods. Our data set includes the density, the porosity, P and S wave velocities, the electrical resistivity, and the permeability of mafic and ultramafic samples under shallow subsurface conditions (confining pressure up to 50 MPa equivalent to ~2‐km depth). In shallow subsurface conditions, mafic and ultramafic samples showed distinct differences in the density, the seismic wave velocities, and the electrical resistivity (mafic samples: 2,840 to 2,860 kg/m3, 5.92 to 6.70 km/s, and 60 to 221 Ω m; ultramafic samples: 2,370 to 2,790 kg/m3, 3.36 and 3.62 km/s, and 8 to 44 Ω m). However, we observed an overlap between physical properties of mafic and ultramafic rocks when we compared our measurements with those acquired from similar environments. The anisotropic homogeneous electrical resistivity inversion shows transverse isotropy symmetry, which is typical of a foliated microstructure. In both the inversion results and the thin sections, the direction of high resistivity axes of ultramafic rock samples is systematically perpendicular to the equivalent axes in mafic rock samples analyzed in this study. Our sample scale study suggests that electrical resistivity anisotropy may allow us to distinguish mafic and ultramafic lithologies via controlled source electromagnetic surveys. When surface conduction is negligible, the electrical resistivity can be used as proxy for permeability.