Petrogenetic and tectonic setting of Kurdistan ophiolitic complex using the Cr-spinel Mineral chemistry

Niabad-Qalaje ophiolitic complex is part of Sarvabad ophiolites in Kurdistan that exposed in northwest of Iran and the north of Kermanshah Ophiolites. The complex located in north of Zagros orogeny, consists of lens form, tectonically dismembered ophiolitic sequences located along the main Zagros trust. The ultramafic part includes serpentinized dunite and wherlite, serpentinite and chromitite that outcropped as consecutive lenses. Small lentiform chromitites present podiform and shear fabrics. The major minerals in peridotites are olivine (Fo= 88-91), clinopyroxene and chromian spinels.  Low Ti value and high content of Al and Cr# in peridotite chromian spinels reveal a high rate of partial melting (25-35%). Mineral chemistry and whole-rock chemistry clearly indicate that the Kurdistan ultramafic cumulates and chromitites record an episode of boninitic magmatism.  Boninitic melts in Niabad-Qalaje ophiolites were formed by partial melting of a depleted peridotite which made up the residual mantle after MORB-type melt extraction. The chemistry of peridotites shows the abyssal to supra-subduction zone source. Comparing the lithological and geochemical characteristics of the studied ophiolites with some other complexes in the world denotes that the Kurdistan ophiolitic complex formed in a fore arc basin close to the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone continental margin.