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Dunites from Isua, Greenland: A ca. 3720 Ma window into subcrustal

metasomatism of depleted mantle
C.R.L. Friend1,3 and A.P. Nutman2,3
1
45 Stanway Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 8HU, UK
2
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2552, Australia
3
Beijing SHRIMP Center, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, 26 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China

ABSTRACT
The chemistry of surviving pieces of Eoarchaean mantle together
with related crust helps us determine early crust-forming mecha-
nisms. Two lenses of high-Mg, low-Al dunite within a ca. 3720 Ma
part of the Isua supracrustal belt in Greenland are interpreted as
relicts of Eoarchaean mantle with minimal crustal disturbance. The
lenses are within altered, higher Al, Ca ultramafic schists and are
intercalated with amphibolitized pillow basalts and gabbros with
island arc chemical signatures, all intruded by 3715–3710 Ma tonal-
ites. One variety of dunite is dominated by forsterite (Fo90–92) olivine
with accessory chromite and rare clinopyroxene, which does not show
high field strength element (HFSE) anomalies. Another variety con-
tains olivine (Fo96–98), some intergrown with Ti-humite group minerals
with strong positive HFSE anomalies that are complementary to the
negative HFSE anomalies of the adjacent amphibolites. We propose
that these dunites are tectonic slivers of ca. 3720 Ma subarc mantle
that preserve evidence for varying interaction with mafic magmas
in a ≥850 °C, 1.7–2.0 GPa subcrustal environment. These are by far
the oldest direct geochemical link between coeval mantle and crustal
rocks, and are new evidence for subduction zone–like environments
on the early Earth.
INTRODUCTION
Understanding the evolution of the Eoarchean Earth’s mantle is
difficult because the oldest rocks are in high-grade terrains where poly-
phase textural, chemical, and structural modification is extensive. Ultra-
mafic rocks in these terrains are usually highly altered (e.g., Dymek et al.,
1988a; Rose et al., 1996), tectonically disrupted, and divorced from their
original lithological associations (e.g., Dymek et al., 1988a; Friend et al.,
2002). Recognition of protoliths is thus difficult and their origins conten-
tious. Consequently, understanding early mantle evolution mostly comes
from indirect geochemical modeling of the sources of the felsic rocks that
form >80% of the Eoarchean rock record (e.g., Bennett et al., 1993), some
associated mafic rocks (e.g., Polat and Hofmann, 2003; Pearce, 2008),
and rarely from ultramafic rocks (Bennett et al., 2002). Geochemical sig-
natures of coeval mafic crustal rocks and residual mantle will comple-
ment each other, allowing divergent models of mafic crust formation (e.g.,
anhydrous decompression melting versus fluid fluxing melting) to be dis-
criminated. We report here an association of ca. 3720 Ma depleted residual
mantle retaining high field strength elements (HFSEs) in titano-humite
group minerals giving clear evidence of subcrustal fluid fluxing processes,
associated with coeval crustal rocks with HFSE depletion.
FIELD SETTING
The Eoarchean amphibolite facies Isua supracrustal belt (ISB;
Greenland) comprises two parts, an older ca. 3800 Ma package and a
younger 3720–3690 Ma package (Nutman et al., 1997; Crowley, 2003)
(Fig. 1). Both packages contain several linear trains of ultramafic rock
lenses (e.g., Nutman and Friend, 2009). In the western arm of the ISB, the
east side is occupied by ca. 3720 Ma strongly deformed amphibolites that
geochemically resemble boninites, island arc tholeiites, and picrites (Polat
et al., 2002; Polat and Hofmann, 2003). Total strain is generally high,

Cover
A Ameralik C 80
50°8.00'
84 Lake
dike
Amphibolite
64°8.42’ 80 D 68
G07/37
70 60
GREENLAND Ultramafic
schist
G07/34-36
70 40
Isua Altered
dunite
80
80
64°9.30' 74 80

BIF Dunite 80 80 80
52
Shear zones 76
82 80
Island-arc G07/11 70 66

rocks Felsic G07/10 64°9.25' G07/32 68 64

Boninite rocks 64°8.38’ G05/35
G07/30,31
74 G07/59
unit 50°W 68
78 80 72

Lens Lake 86
80
Lens B 3800 Ma A
G07/09

G07/24 64°8.36’N 54 80 64°9.20'

60
Lens A unit G07/23 70

64° 7.5’N
66
66 50°8.95’W
76
52
Lens
Dymek et al.,
1988a, 1988b Isua
78 30 m B
64 G07/24 Sample site 50 m
supracrustal 04
B 5 km
belt 50°9.05’ 50°9.0’
Foliation/lineation
Olivine alignment
64°9.15’N
50°6.00’W

Figure 1. A: Southern part of Greenland and location of Isua supracrustal belt (ISB). B: Outline of ISB and location of described ul-
tramafic bodies, A and B, within ca. 3720 Ma island arc mafic rocks (shaded). C, D: Detailed maps of preserved ultramafic rocks with
anhydrous assemblages. Lens A, at GPS 65°08.382′N, 50°09.011′W and Lens B, at GPS 65°09.256′N 50°08.704′W (using World Geodetic
System, WSG84 map datum).

© 2011 Geological Society of America. For permission to copy, contact Copyright Permissions, GSA, or editing@geosociety.org.
GEOLOGY,
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 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on June 5, 2015
but primary structures such as pillows (Furnes et al. 2007; Nutman and
Friend, 2007), amygdules, and ocelli structures (Appel et al., 2009) are
locally preserved. Layers of highly tectonized volcaniclastic and chemi-
cal sedimentary rocks, including banded iron formation, occur (Allaart,
1976) with gabbros that have been dated at 3720–3710 Ma (Friend and
Nutman, 2010). Geochemical signatures suggest that these rocks formed
in an island arc setting (Polat et al., 2002; Polat and Hofmann, 2003). On
this eastern side intercalations of amphibolites and ultramafic rocks are
truncated at an acute angle by an extensive tonalite intrusion, dated as
ca. 3715 Ma (Grimes and Dunning, 2002; Friend and Nutman, 2010). To
the west this package of rocks is tectonically bounded by boninitic rocks
(Fig. 1) containing tholeiitic gabbros that have yielded igneous high Th/U
zircons with an age of 3719 ± 17 Ma, and pillowed boninitic lavas cut
by a 3717 ± 6 Ma hypabyssal tonalite sheet. Therefore, the entire assem-
blage of mafic to felsic igneous rocks formed between 3720 and 3710 Ma
(Friend and Nutman, 2010).
The ISB ultramafic rocks have mostly been interpreted as the
strongly metasomatized and deformed derivatives of originally anhydrous
olivine ± pyroxene-dominated protoliths derived from disrupted ultra-
mafic cumulates or sills (e.g., Dymek et al., 1988a; Rosing et al., 1996;
Furnes et al., 2007). Many samples for this interpretation came from the
older, ca. 3800 Ma, tectonic package, and thus are irrelevant to the inter-
pretation of the ca. 3720 Ma assemblages; however, both Dymek et al.
(1988a) and Rollinson (2007) concluded that mantle rocks are absent from
the ISB. Samples IW809–2 to IW809−4 (Dymek et al., 1988a) come from
the southern end of a train of altered ultramafic rocks (Fig. 1B) within
the ca. 3720 Ma island arc package (Friend and Nutman, 2011). These
samples (Fig. 2) show more depleted bulk chemistry than Dymek et al.’s.
(1988b) other samples. Sample IW809–4 is described as serpentinized
dunite with magnesian olivine (Fo85–97) and intergrown titanochondrodite
(TiCh) and titanoclinohumite (TiCl) as discrete grains in the serpentine
matrix, isolated from olivine.
The rare lenses of little altered dunite studied here (Fig. 1) occur in
the northern extension of the same train studied by Dymek et al. (1988b),
who described the rocks as comprising a range of diverse amphibole-
chlorite-olivine-serpentine-talc-carbonate schists. The complex assem-
blages were explained using different lines of polyphase alteration lead-
ing back to different proposed protoliths. In addition, there is extensive
postmagmatic metasomatic carbonate alteration (Rose et al., 1996). The
remnant dunite lenses occur within two bodies of deformed, hydrated,
often carbonated, ultramafic schists with fabrics equivalent to those in the
surrounding amphibolites (Figs. 1C and 1D). Conversely, the anhydrous
2.0
Isua IAB (Appel et al., 2009)
Isua boninites (Polat et al., 2002)
Mantle
depletion Allaart data (1970s)
Dymek et al., 1988a, 1988b
1.5 3800 Ma layered rocks
3800 Ma mantle rocks
High-Al Mantle models
Mg/Si
1.0 U P Komatiites McDonough et al.,1992
Abyssal Arndt et al.,1997
Peridotites
Low-Al
Komatiites
0.5
Dunite rocks this study
Layered rocks this study
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Al/Si
Figure 2. Si-Al-Mg ratios (wt%) diagram to discriminate between
different types of ultramafic and mafic rocks. IAB—island-arc ba-
salts. Model primitive mantle compositions—undepleted mantle (U)
(Jagoutz et al. 1979); depleted mantle (Taylor and McLennan 1981);
pyrolite (P) (McDonough and Sun, 1995).
664
dunite lenses preserve earlier structures orientated obliquely to those in
the surrounding ultramafic schists and mafic rocks. The southern lens, A,
is ~120 m by 60 m, and is dominated by homogeneous, fine- to medium-
grained dunite represented by sample G07/10, consisting of an aggregate
of olivine (Fo91–92) with chlorite, serpentine, and minor magnetite along
the grain boundaries. Early chromite, variably altered to magnetite, is pre-
served locally in triple points between olivine grains. The olivine con-
tains rare inclusions of clinopyroxene that often are partially altered to
amphibole. A second variety of dunite has a distinct planar fabric of platy,
≤4-cm-long dark brown olivine grains. This coarser dunite often repre-
sents irregular, sheet-like zones that run through the finer grained isotropic
dunite. These are also early structures that are oblique to and are truncated
or deflected at the lens margins by the later intracrustal amphibolite facies
tectonic fabrics enclosing the bodies (Figs. 1C and 1D).
The northern lens, B, is 300 m by 100 m and superficially resem-
bles A in its internal features, but has a more diverse inventory of phases,
including primary orthopyroxene, and secondary minerals, including
kämmererite (Cr-chlorite). Sample G07/32 has brownish olivine (Fo96–98),
some with intergrowths of TiCh and TiCl (Fig. 3). Dymek et al. (1988b)
found TiCh and TiCl only in the metamorphic matrix, out of context with
olivine. However, in the less altered rocks reported here, an earlier inter-
growth relationship of olivine and TiCh and TiCl minerals is preserved.
The origin of such intergrowths is debated, but are reported from ultra-
mafic rocks ranging from antigorite serpentinites to garnet peridotites
(López Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al., 2005, 2009) and ultrahigh-pressure rocks
(Hermann et al., 2005). The association of TiCh and TiCl minerals and
olivine has been attributed to subcrustal pressure-temperature conditions
(López Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al., 2005, 2009).
Because the ISB dunites are plagioclase- and garnet-free, and
clinopyroxene is rare, they do not readily lend themselves to quantita-
tive thermobarometry. As the assemblages were chromite-bearing and
garnet-free, they probably evolved below ~2.0 GPa and above ~850 °C
(O’Neill, 1981). The conditions of formation of the TiCh- and TiCl-
bearing dunite are equally difficult to assess, but there are suggestions
that such rocks might evolve at pressures of 1.7–2.0 GPa (López Sán-
chez-Vizcaíno et al., 2005).
DUNITE GEOCHEMISTRY
In terms of major element composition (see the GSA Data Reposi-
tory1), these Isua dunites pass the criteria (Rollinson, 2007) for being
depleted mantle–derived rocks, as is most plainly demonstrated in the Mg/
Si versus Al/Si plot (Fig. 2). This displays their congruence with variably
depleted upper mantle suites forming a trend parallel with a mantle line
defined using primitive mantle nodules and Phanerozoic terrestrial mantle
peridotites (Jagoutz et al., 1979; Jacobsen et al., 1984; López Sánchez-
Vizcaíno et al., 2005). The data plot to the depleted side of hypotheti-
cal mantle models as compared with ultramafic cumulates from layered
intrusions, magnesian komatiites (e.g., Arndt, 1986; Rollinson, 2007), and
picrites with large amounts of accumulated mantle olivine, which largely
plot to the right. Similarly, the surrounding basaltic rocks form a linear
variation array far to the right and on a different control trend, demonstrat-
ing that the dunites cannot be simply olivine-laden cumulates from high-
Mg basalts. The dunites are also consistently depleted in terms of Al2O3,
CaO, and Fe. From their field characteristics, petrography, and whole-rock
and mineral chemistry, the case is made that the dunites represent slivers of
mantle emplaced into the crust prior to the intrusion of the 3720–3710 Ma
tonalites. These new data support earlier, but abandoned suggestions, that
1
GSA Data Repository item 2011206, Figures DR1−DR3, and Tables DR1−
DR3 (geochemistry and representative analyses), is available online at www
.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2011.htm, or on request from editing@geosociety.org or
Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
GEOLOGY, July 2011
 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on June 5, 2015

Figure 3. Examples of Ti-

bearing minerals. A: G07/34, ol A 200 µm B Ti C
curved and complexly in-
Ch
tergrown titanochondrodite
(TiCh) and titanoclinohumite
ol ol
(TiCl) and olivine (ol). Ti min-
erals are shown to be early as ol Ch
they are overgrown by chlorite
(Ch). Complex intergrowth is TiCh/TiCl TiCh
similar to those figured by ol
López Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al. 100 µm
(2009). B: G07/32, backscat-
tered electron image of area of TiCh/TiCl intergrown with olivine. C: X-ray map for Ti; same area as shown in B.

at least some Isua ultramafic rocks were mantle derived (Allaart, 1976).
Thus not all Isua ultramafic rocks are altered cumulates from tectonically
dismembered layered intrusions, as proposed by Dymek et al. (1988a),
Rosing et al. (1996), Furnes et al. (2007), and Rollinson (2007).
Humite minerals are important reservoirs for the HFSEs Ti, Nb, Ta,
Zr, and Hf (e.g., López Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al., 2005, 2009), and these ele-
ments are widely used for geochemical discrimination of particular types
of basalt (e.g., Pearce, 2008). Thus juxtaposition of ca. 3720 Ma mafic
rocks of different petrogenetic origins with negative HFSE anomalies
(Polat et al., 2002; Polat and Hofmann, 2003) and coeval mantle allows
the investigation of this. The dunites are rare earth element (REE) depleted
relative to model primitive mantle (Sun and McDonough, 1989) (Fig. 4).
Both lens A and B have similar light (L) REE and negative Eu anomalies,
and there is no significant fractionation of the LREEs relative to heavy
(H) REEs. The TiCh-TiCl–bearing whole-rocks of lens B show slightly
downward-bowed middle REE to HREE spectra. In extended trace ele-
ment patterns there are positive U and negative Nb anomalies with no
significant Ti anomaly. This pattern is interpreted as a residuum signature
of advanced melting, perhaps at relatively shallow levels, with the deple-
tion first of plagioclase (Eu and Sr concentrating) from the assemblage.
Representative olivines from each body show different trace element
patterns (Fig. 4). Olivine (Fo92) in sample G07/10 of TiCh- and TiCl-free
of the ca. 3720 Ma arc rocks. In lens B (e.g., sample G07/32), the positive
HFSE anomalies in the TiCh and TiCh components, while largely masked
in the whole-rock patterns, complement the negative HFSE anomalies in
the associated island arc basalts, picrites, and boninites (Polat et al., 2002;
Polat and Hofmann, 2003) (Fig. 4). This suggests that the arc volcanic
magmas could have interacted with dunites along subcrustal conduits with
formation of Ti-humite–bearing assemblages, leaving kernels of unmodi-
fied dunite between. That the mantle material is associated with arc rocks
suggests that the lenses might sample subarc mantle. However, using
Phanerozoic comparisons it is more usual that such interacted material is
suboceanic mantle.
The ca. 3720 Ma ISB rocks described here provide direct evidence
that early crust formation at convergent plate boundaries entailed a complex
wedge of mantle between the arc assemblage and the subducted slab; i.e.,
Eoarchean subduction was not always low angle, with the subducted slab
forming the direct sole to the arc complex. The complexity of these melt
generation zones is supported by the recognition of increasingly diverse
100
IAT pillow
cores
10
IAT basalts
Rock/PM

dunite shows very low REE abundances with a slight progressive enrich- Boninites
ment in the HREEs. There are negative Ta, Zr, and Eu anomalies and no 1 G07/10 Rock
significant Ti anomaly. The olivine (Fo96) in sample G07/32 of TiCh- and
TiCl-bearing dunite from lens B has a different, but still depleted, pattern 0.1
that is enriched in the HREEs that rises from 0.05 to 2× primitive mantle G07/10
Olivine
(Sun and McDonough, 1989) and has marked positive Ta and Zr anoma- 0.01
lies, and negative Ti anomalies (Fig. 4). Patterns for TiCh and TiCl are
0.001
A
depleted and have a distinctly downward hooked pattern in the HREEs.
They have marked positive anomalies in Ta, Nb, Zr, and Ti (Fig. 4). The 100
minerals in lens B thus appear consistent with strong partitioning of
G07/32
TiCh/TiCl B
HFSEs, and their composition (mineral analyses in Table DR3 in the Data 10
Rock/PM

Repository) matches those found in Phanerozoic exhumed mantle suites,

interpreted to display varying degrees of subarc metasomatism (López 1 G07/32 Rock
Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al., 2005).
0.1
DISCUSSION
The field setting, U-Pb zircon geochronology, and depleted chemis- 0.01
G07/32 Olivine
try of the preserved dunite lenses allows the ultramafic rocks to be inter-
0.001
preted as slices of depleted mantle emplaced into the crust, ca. 3720 Ma. U Nb Ce Nd Sm Ti Tb Y Er Yb
Their association suggests that they are some form of suprasubduction- Th Ta La Pr Zr Eu Gd Dy Ho Tm
zone ophiolite (e.g., Dilek and Polat, 2008). These depleted mantle Figure 4. Primitive mantle (PM) normalized (Sun and McDonough,
rocks are the oldest examples yet documented to occur between slices of 1989), extended trace and rare earth element patterns for ultramafic
mafic rocks with island arc chemical signatures. For these ca. 3720 Ma rocks, included minerals, and associated basaltic rocks. A: Lens A
dunites the variations in anhydrous textures and mineralogy must predate (Ti-mineral free) dunitic rocks are represented by patterns for se-
amphibolite facies metamorphism in the crust and, together with their lected G07/10 olivines. Ranges for island-arc pillow cores and island
arc tholeiite (IAT) basalts are from Polat and Hofmann (2003) and
chemical differences, it is suggested that lenses A and B represent dif- for boninitic rocks are after Polat et al. (2002). B: Lens B with Ti-
ferent domains of a heterogeneous mantle. Lens A homogeneous dunites chondrodite and Ti-clinohumite, represented by ranges for selected
(e.g., sample G07/10) do not appear to have participated in the formation G07/32 olivines and TiCh-TiCl intergrowths.

GEOLOGY, July 2011 665

 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on June 5, 2015
chemical variation of Eoarchaean arc magmas, which include not only
tonalites from subducted eclogitized mafic crust (Nutman et al., 1999), but
also mantle wedge–derived boninites, arc tholeiites, and picrites (Polat and
Hofmann, 2003; Jenner et al., 2008) and dacitic ocelli in basalt (Appel et
al., 2009). Thus these coeval ca. 3720 Ma mantle and crustal rocks provide
important information on Eoarchean convergent plate boundaries.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The field and analytical work was funded by the Chinese Academy of Geo-
logical Sciences, Beijing. The polished sections were skillfully finished by J. Wells,
whom we thank. Major and trace element analyses were produced by V. Bennett
(Australian National University). We thank N. Charnley (Oxford University) for
the use of the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy system. The laser ablation–in-
ductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry system at the Department of Geology,
Northwest University, Xi’an, used for the mineral trace element analyses was cour-
tesy of Liu Xiao-Ming, assisted by Diwu Chun-Rong. We also thank Ole Christian-
sen (NunaMinerals A/S) for additional long-term logistical support for field work.
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Manuscript received 12 November 2010
Revised manuscript received 17 February 2011
Manuscript accepted 24 February 2011
Printed in USA
GEOLOGY, July 2011
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Geology

Dunites from Isua, Greenland: A ca. 3720 Ma window into subcrustal

metasomatism of depleted mantle
C.R.L. Friend and A.P. Nutman

Geology 2011;39;663-666
doi: 10.1130/G31904.1

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