HFSE-rich picritic rocks from the Mino accretionary complex,southwestern Japan

Sills, pillow lavas and hyaloclastites of the HFSE-rich picrite and related rocks (ankaramite and basanite) occur in the Middle Permian cherts in the Mino Jurassic accretionary complex, southwestern Japan. These rocks show systematic trace element patterns enriched in incompatible elements, which indicate that the associated ankaramite and basanite are formed by the crystal fractionation from the picrite. The presence of the hyaloclastite in the chert sequence covering a large tholeiitic greenstone body indicates that the picrite was produced in an intraoceanic setting in the Middle Permian time subsequent to the extrusion of the voluminous oceanic island tholeiite. The Mino picrites resemble the Siberian meimechite and Polynesian picrites in its HFSE-rich chemical composition. The HFSE enrichment in these picrites cannot be explained by low degree of partial melting of primitive peridotite mantle only, and needs a source material involving recycled oceanic crust (eclogite). The differences in MgO content and in TiO₂/Al₂O₃ and Zr/Y ratios among the HFSE-rich picrites indicate that the melting pressure increases from the Polynesian picrite through Mino picrite to Siberian picrite. This may reflect the increasing thickness of the overlying lithosphere at the time and place of magmatism. The HFSE-rich picrites may be a product of a superplume event. The presence of HFSE-rich picrite in Mino and Siberia indicate that the superplume activities occur in both continental and oceanic settings in the Permian time.