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In garnets from eclogites and blueschists formed within the subduction setting, fine-scale, oscillatory elemental zoning is a common feature, sometimes considered to record open-system fluid exchange during prograde metamorphism. We present oxygen isotope data for garnets with such zoning from five exhumed subduction zone complexes. Short length scale fluctuations in elemental and oxygen isotope zoning (which are themselves spatially decoupled) cannot be linked to open-system fluid exchange during garnet crystallization in all samples; these data do not provide evidence for a genetic relationship between elemental oscillations and fluid fluxing. However, garnets from one setting do provide clear evidence for syn-growth ingress of elementally and isotopically buffering fluids, a process that operated simultaneously with the formation of elemental oscillations. Our findings indicate multiple mechanisms of chemical transfer operate at the grain–rock scale during subduction, and that some subduction zone rocks may experience only limited interaction with external prograde fluids. These results are consistent with a picture of highly heterogenous volatile transfer during subduction, and suggest that some proportion of the fluid inventory inherited at shallow depths may be transferred to sub-arc depths. 

Orogenic ophiolites are a hallmark of Phanerozoic plate tectonics, containing igneous lithologies that provide constraints on fundamental tectono-magmatic processes. The c. 1900Ma Pembine Ophiolite (Wisconsin, USA) is associated with the Penokean Orogen and represents a rare example of a proposed Paleoproterozoic ophiolite. The Penokean Orogen shares broad characteristics with Phanerozoic (<541 Ma) orogens, but the origin of the Pembine Ophiolite remains unclear, with the mafic volcanic rocks interpreted as representing either an intra-oceanic arc or continental back arc setting. To test these hypotheses, we present the results of petrography, bulk-rock geochemistry and mineral chemistry for a suite of 34 Pembine rocks, as well as U-Pb zircon geochronology for two samples. Based on trace elements established as immobile in the studied rocks, we demonstrate that mafic volcanism progressed (up-stratigraphic-section) from mid-ocean ridge-like to boninitic. The chemical evolution is identical to that observed in < 250 Ma ophiolites in the Himalayan–Alpine Orogen, which record forearc spreading during the nascent stages of subduction in the Tethys Ocean. We interpret the Pembine Ophiolite as forearc lithosphere formed during subduction initiation and obducted to the margin of the Superior Craton during the Penokean Orogeny. The processes responsible for forming (and preserving) this example of a Paleoproterozoic ophiolite may not have been dissimilar to those operating on the Phanerozoic Earth. 

The Dadeville Complex of Alabama and Georgia (southeastern United States) represents the largest suite of exposed mafic-ultramafic rocks in the southern Appalachians. Due to poor preservation, chemical alteration, and tectonic reworking, a specific tectonic origin for the Dadeville Complex has been difficult to deduce. We obtained new whole-rock and mineral geochemistry coupled with zircon U-Pb geochronology to investigate the magmatic and metamorphic processes recorded by the Dadeville Complex, as well as the timing of these processes. Our data reveal an up-stratigraphic evolution in the geochemistry of the volcanic rocks, from forearc basalts to boninites. Our new U-Pb zircon crystallization data—obtained from three amphibolite samples—place the timing of forearc/protoarc volcanism no later than ca. 467 Ma. New thermobarometry suggests that the Dadeville Complex rocks subsequently experienced deep, high-grade metamorphism, at pressure-temperature conditions of ~7 kbar and ~760 °C. The data presented here support a model for formation of the Dadeville Complex in the forearc region of a subduction zone during subduction initiation and protoarc development, followed by deep burial/underthrusting of the complex during orogenesis. 

Suprasubduction zone (SSZ) ophiolites of the northern Appalachians (eastern North America) have provided key constraints on the fundamental tectonic processes responsible for the evolution of the Appalachian orogen. The central and southern Appalachians, which extend from southern New York to Alabama (USA), also contain numerous ultra- mafic-mafic bodies that have been interpreted as ophiolite fragments; however, this interpretation is a matter of debate, with the origin(s) of such occurrences also attributed to layered intrusions. These disparate proposed origins, alongside the range of possible magmatic affinities, have varied potential implications for the magmatic and tectonic evolution of the central and southern Appalachian orogen and its relationship with the northern Appalachian orogen. We present the results of field observations, petrography, bulk-rock geochemistry, and spinel mineral chemistry for ultramafic portions of the Baltimore Mafic Complex, which refers to a series of ultramafic-mafic bodies that are discontinuously exposed in Maryland and southern Pennsylvania (USA). Our data indicate that the Baltimore Mafic Complex comprises SSZ ophiolite fragments. The Soldiers Delight Ultramafite displays geochemical characteristics—including highly depleted bulk-rock trace element patterns and high Cr# of spinel—characteristic of subduction-related mantle peridotites and serpentinites. The Hollofield Ultramafite likely represents the “layered ultramafics” that form the Moho. Interpretation of the Baltimore Mafic Complex as an Iapetus Ocean–derived SSZ ophiolite in the central Appalachian orogen raises the possibility that a broadly coeval suite of ophiolites is preserved along thousands of kilometers of orogenic strike.