Petrology and mineralogy of dredged gabbro from Gettysburg Bank,eastern Atlantic

Gabbros have been dredged from Gettysburg Bank, 110 km west of Portugal on the Azores/Gibraltar fracture zone. Primary minerals in olivine, pyroxene and brown hornblende gabbros are partially replaced by metamorphic minerals. Igneous textures are inhomogeneously overprinted by a granular polyhedral deformation and a cataclastic deformation. Amphiboles show characteristics which indicate a transition from crystallisation in a magma chamber to formation of amphibole in solid gabbro under metasomatic conditions. Of the amphiboles analysed, chlorine was present in the green amphiboles but below 0.05% in the brown suggesting the penetration of sea water after the formation of the brown amphibole but during the formation of the green.