Petrology and geochemistry of gabbros in the Baft ophiolitic mélange; southwest of Kerman

Baft ophiolitic melange, as a part of ophiolitic melange belt of the Central Iran, is adjacent to Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic assemblage in the north and Sanandaj-Sirjan metamorphic zone in the south. The ophiolitic complex has been emplaced in the Late Cretaceous time as a result of closure of Nain-Baft oceanic basin. The gabbros are the main constituent of the complex and occur as large intrusive bodies showing isotropic and rarely layered structures with hypidiomorphic granular to pegmatitic textures. The color index varies from melanocratic to lesser extent mesocratic and leucocratic. Geochemical studies reveal that gabbros are tholeiitic to calc-alkaline, low-Ti in nature and show similarity to N-MORB. The chondrite-normalized rare earth elements patterns are almost flat with slight enrichment in LREEs relative to HREEs which indicates a similarity in their origin. It seems that gabbros were derived from a depleted refractory mantle source in a subduction zone setting.