3Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, CF Møllers Allé Building 110, DK-8000 Århus, Denmark.

Serpentine minerals and brucite in ultramafic rocks from the South Chamorro Seamount were characterized chemically to investigate the serpentinization of the Mariana forearc mantle. Relict primary minerals of the serpentinites are olivine, enstatite and minor Cr-spinel and diopside. The secondary minerals are mostly serpentine and brucite with minor magnetite. The serpentine minerals, mostly lizardite and chrysotile, display large compositional variations. Al2O3 and Cr2O3 contents depend generally upon the nature of the primary mineral from which the serpentine was derived. Both serpentine minerals and brucite exhibit wide Mg, Fe and Mn substitution: the Mg# ranges are 95.1 77.2 and 88.9 60.8, respectively. These mineralogical and chemical features allowed us to estimate an upper temperature limit for serpentinization of ~200 300ºC, in agreement with recent thermal models which suggest that the serpentinized mantle wedge of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction zone is cold. The high degree of serpentinization (40 100%, average >75%), and the serpentine + brucite paragenesis of these ultramafics imply that the Mariana forearc mantle has a significantly reduced density and strength down to ~30 km, which provides a driving mechanism for serpentinite diapirism. Pervasive serpentinization of the forearc by fluids released from the de´collement zone also explains the low seismicity of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction zone.

Secondary minerals of a 91 meters-thick sequence of pillow basalts cored during ODP Leg 195 (Site 1201, West Philippine Basin) were investigated to reconstruct the hydrothermal alteration history and regime. The basement was first buried by red clays, and then by a thick turbidite sequence, thereby isolating it from seawater. The basalts are primitive to moderately fractionated, texturally variable from hypocrystalline and spherulitic to intersertal, sub-ophitic and intergranular. Relic primary minerals are plagioclase, clinopyroxene and opaques. Hydrothermal alteration pervasively affected the basalts, generating secondary clay minerals (mostly glauconite, minor Al-saponite and Fe-beidellite, Na-zeolites, minor alkali-feldspar and calcite. The secondary mineral paragenesis and mutual relationships suggest that the hydrothermal alteration occurred under zeolite-facies conditions, at temperatures 100-150 C. The main phase of alteration occurred under oxidizing conditions, with a high seawater rock ratio, in an open-circulation regime, at temperatures of 30-60 C, with precipitation of abundant glauconite and iddingsite. A later stage of alteration occurred at ca. 70 C, with precipitation of abundant Na-zeolites and minor calcite, in a more restricted circulation regime as a consequence of basement burial under the sedimentary cover, which supplied an altered, Ca-rich and Magma-sulfate-poor water causing precipitation of almost pure calcite.

The basement cored at Site 1201 (west Philippine Basin) during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 195 consists of a 91-m-thick sequence of basalts, mostly pillow lavas and perhaps one sheet lava flow, with a few intercalations of hyaloclastite and interpillow sedimentary material. Hydrothermal alteration pervasively affected the basalt sequence, giving rise to a variety of secondary minerals such as K-Fe-Mg-clay minerals, oxyhydroxides and clay minerals mixtures, natrolite group zeolites, analcite, alkali feldspar, and carbonate. The primary minerals of pillow and sheet basalts that survived the intense hydrothermal alteration were investigated by electron microprobe with the aim of characterizing their chemical composition and variability. The primary minerals are mostly plagioclase, ranging in composition from bytownite through labradorite to andesine, chromian-magnesian-diopside, and spinels, both Ti magnetite (partially maghemitized) and chromian spinel. Overall, the chemical features of the primary minerals of Site 1201 basalts correspond to the primitive character of the bulk rocks, suggesting that the parent magma of these basalts was a mafic tholeiitic magma that most likely only suffered limited fractional crystallization and crystallized at high temperatures (slightly below 1200°C) and under increasing ƒO2 conditions. The major element composition of clinopyroxene suggests a backarc affinity of the mantle source of Site 1201 basement.