Actualistic Ophiolite Provenance: The Cyprus Case

Abstract

The island of Cyprus represents an excellent site to assess quantitatively petrologic clastic response to actively obducting oceanic sources in order to define an actualistic reference for ophiolite provenance, in terms of framework composition and heavy mineral suites. An improved methodology, an extension of the classic ternary QFL logic to include a wider spectrum of key indexes and ratios, provides an accurate synthesis of modal data and allows differentiation of three main petrographic provinces and at least seven subprovinces. Diagnostic signatures of detritus from various levels of an oceanic lithospheric source, and criteria for distinguishing provenance from suprasubduction versus mid-oceanic ophiolites are also outlined. Modern sands derived from the Troodos Ophiolite contain variable proportions of largely pelagic carbonate to chert, boninite to basalt, diabase to metabasite, plagiogranite to gabbroic, and cumulate grains supplied from progressively deeper-seated levels of the multilayered oceanic crust. Dense minerals are mainly clinopyroxenes (diopside), prevailing over orthopyroxenes (enstatite, hypersthene, clinoenstatite), hornblende, tremolite/actinolite, and epidote. Where serpentinized mantle harzburgites have been unroofed, detritus is markedly enriched in cellular serpentinite grains and enstatite, with still negligible olivine and spinel. Sedimentaclastic sands dominated by chert (Mamonia Province) or carbonate grains (Kyrenia Province) are deposited along the southern and northern shores of the island, respectively. Compositions of Cyprus sands are virtually unaffected by climatic, sedimentary, or anthropic processes; recycling of sandstones from foreign sources is a major process only in the Karpaz Peninsula. Petrographic analysis also provides an independent mean to identify prevalent directions of longshore sand transport.

Integrated geological, petrologic and geochemical approach to establish source material and technology of Late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White ware ceramics

“…However, the sand sized mineralogical assemblage in the paste of this group shows a stronger affinity to rocks from the Troodos ophiolite (McCallum and Poole and Robertson, 1998). Although they include microfossils that have been found in the in the Pleistocene formations of the eastern Mesaoria Plain, the increased modal abundance of Fe-Cr-Ti bearing ores, pyroxenes and olivine reveal a raw-material source that lays closer to the Troodos massif and was therefore richer in ophiolitederived material (Garzanti et al, 2000). The high TTE abundances (Fig.…”

The Euphrates-Tigris-Karun river system: Provenance, recycling and dispersal of quartz-poor foreland-basin sediments in arid climate

“…Despite of only low-grade metamorphism, amphibole color indices are higher in Mesopotamian sands (HCI 25 ± 10) than generally found in foreland basin sediments (e.g., 8 ± 3, 9 ± 3 and 10 ± 4 for Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra sands; Garzanti et al, 2005; Islands (Garzanti et al, 2000(Garzanti et al, , 2002a(Garzanti et al, , 2002b(Garzanti et al, , 2013b, reflecting extensive post-obduction greenschist-facies metamorphism of dominantly crustal protoliths.…”

“…Cr-spinel and olivine are rare, and enstatite very rare. Amphibole-epidote suites shed by the Penjween and Mawat ophiolites contrast with pyroxene suites shed by ophiolitic complexes exposed all along the Alpine-Himalayan belt from the Apennines to the Andaman Islands (Garzanti et al, 2000(Garzanti et al, , 2002a(Garzanti et al, , 2002b(Garzanti et al, , 2013b Ultramafic detritus thus notably decreases from eastern Anatolia to the Iraqi Kurdistan, and ibecomes scarce in Iran (Table 1). Mantle source rocks belonged to the oceanic upper plate obducted onto Arabia in the Late Cretaceous, and thus cellular serpentinite grains prevail over serpentineschist throughout the Euphrates and Tigris catchments ( Fig.…”

“…5F,I). Such a carbonaticlastic-cherticlastic signature characterizes detritus derived from sedimentary successions deposited originally along the distal passive margin of southern Neotethys (e.g., Hawasina units of northern Oman, Mamonia complex of Cyprus, Toscana-Umbria domain of the Apennines; Garzanti et al, 2000;2002a;2002b), where arid/semiarid climate at tropical latitudes since the close of the Paleozoic have favored biogenic carbonate factories rather than physical siliciclastic production. Interbedded quartz-rich sandstones, characteristic of many passive-margin settings , are consequently few, and modern sands are quartz-poor with ZTR ≤ 12 even where entirely derived from sedimentary rocks (e.g., upper Karun).…”

The Recycled Orogenic Sand Provenance from an Uplifted Thrust Belt, Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain

“…The quartz-rich quartzolithic sand suite is typically derived by mixing cratonic and fold-thrust belt sediment, or by recycling of previously accreted quartzose sediment sequences (Schwab 1986). The transitional and lithic quartzolithic sand suites are derived mainly from metasedimentary and sedimentary strata previously accreted within the fold-thrust belt, or from uplifted subduction complex terranes (Dickinson 1985;Le Pera and Critelli 1997;Garzanti et al 1998;Garzanti et al 2000).…”