Abstract
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program site U1365 drilled into the basement of the southwest Pacific crust formed from the mid-Cretaceous Osbourn Trough that rifted apart the Manihiki and Hikurangi Plateaus (the Greater Manihiki). The basalt geochemistry at this site is crucial for understanding the magmatic processes and mantle source of the mid-Cretaceous Osbourn Trough. The recovered fresh basalts were low-K tholeiitic normal (N) and depleted (D) mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB). Their trace element and Sr–Nd isotope compositions indicate a Pacific-type mantle source rather than any significant influences from the nearby Louisville Seamount Chain or from the Greater Manihiki Plateau. Despite the presence of a plume head underneath the Osbourn Trough at its initial stage, the insignificance of a plume head could be explained by the long-distance (> 1000 km) southward migration of the Osbourn Trough. Lavas at site U1365 vary from low-MgO (< 6.9 wt.%) N-MORB at the bottom to high-MgO (8 wt.% to 9.5 wt.%) D-MORB and, then, to medium-MgO (7.3 wt.% to 8.2 wt.%) N-MORB according to their eruption sequences, which was accompanied by magma mixing in the magma reservoir. The D-MORB group lavas have higher melting degrees than those of N-MORB group based on their concentrations of TiO2, Na2O and CaO corrected for crystallization relative to MgO = 7.8 wt.%. The major element compositions of the high-MgO D-MORB lavas were consistent with partial melting in the spinel–peridotite zone over a pressure interval from ~ 3.1 GPa to 2 GPa in the mantle. The significant overlap of N-MORB and D-MORB in Sr–Nd isotopes suggests that chemical differences between the two groups were derived from the mantle melting processes. Based on comparison with lavas from the East Pacific Rise where a positive correlation of mantle melting degree vs. spreading rate is shown, we suggest that the Osbourn Trough might have a full spreading rate of ~ 140 mm/yr. Thus, the slow ridge-like axial morphology of the Osbourn Trough should be a character of an extinct fast ridge.
