Late Palaeozoic Ultramafic Lavas in Yunnan, SW China, and their Geodynamic Significance

We report petrological and geochemical data on ultramafic pillowlavas from Late Palaeozoic marine sequences in Yunnan, SW China.These lavas have >26 wt % MgO, euhedral to subhedral olivinephenocrysts and acicular or quench clinopyroxene crystals withor without microlitic plagioclase in a devitrified and alteredglassy matrix. These ultramafic lavas are compositionally komatiitic(>18 wt % MgO), but we term them high-Mg picrites becausethey lack spinifex-textured olivine. Although olivines in thesepicrites are cumulate crystals, causing the high MgO contentsof the bulk rocks, the high forsterite content of these olivines,Fo = 0·902 ± 0·011, suggests that the primitivemagmas parental to the picrites would have had