Talc-carbonate alteration of ultramafic rocks within the Leka Ophiolite Complex, Central Norway

The partly altered peridotites consist of the mineral assemblage olivine-clinopyroxene-serpentine-magnetite-brucite and formed at temperatures < 410 °C by infiltration of aqueous fluids. Completely serpentinized rocks with the mineral assemblage serpentine-magnesite-magnetite-dolomite formed at temperatures < 500 °C and low XCO2 (≤ 0.05) by the breakdown of the minerals in the partly altered peridotites. Talc-carbonate rocks formed by the breakdown of the serpentine in the previously formed serpentinite rock at temperatures < 550 °C and elevated XCO2, which resulted in the stabilization of the assemblage talc-magnesite-magnetite-dolomite. Carbon isotope values determined for dolomite from crosscutting carbonate lenses within the talc-carbonate rock yield δ13C values of ~− 5 indicative of a mantle source for the carbon required for the carbonation. Oxygen isotope values δSMOW18O of ~ 10.8-11.3‰ together with initial 87Sr/86Sri = 400Ma values of 0.7029 and 0.7063, suggest dehydration of rocks with mantle affinity as a source for the fluids. Based on analytical results and field observations we propose that the formation of the talc- and carbonate-bearing alteration zones is caused by the focused infiltration of fluids that originated at the bottom of already partly serpentinized ophiolite complex during extension-driven burial at the late stage of the Caledonian orogeny.