Formation of fully carbonated/silicified peridotite (listwaenite) during shallow-crustal extension (Eastern Oman Mountains)

Oman’s listwaenite formed when carbonate-rich fluids reacted with peridotite, reducing the atmosphere’s carbon. Listwaenite provides clues regarding natural global carbon flux and sequestration. Oman contains the world's largest exposure of oceanic lithosphere. Obduction of the peridotite-bearing Semail Ophiolite onto Arabia occurred during the Late Cretaceous. The ophiolite’s hot base exerted contact metamorphism onto tectonically underlying rocks (“metamorphic sole”). Post-obductional doming, extension and E/W-shortening overprinted the rocks. In the Fanja area, (par-)autochthonous platform rocks are in contact with allochthonous rocks, and numerous listwaenite bodies several kilometers long and tens of meters wide are exposed. Mapping of the Fanja area at the scale of 1:10,000, determined the listwaenite’s tectogenesis. Two models exist. Listwaenite formed either during Late Cretaceous convergence and subduction or during shallow post-obductional extension. Mapping confirms: (i) Two listwaenite generations exist: an early gently dipping and a more common late steeply dipping generation. (ii) Listwaenite contacts of both generations with the ambient rocks are always a non-contractional fault. (iii) The listwaenite-metamorphic sole contact of the older listwaenite bodies is discordant and faulted. (iv) Both listwaenite generations are typically tabular, while the metamorphic sole may be intensely folded. (v) Drag folds and Riedel faults indicate extensional and/or WNW-striking sinistral shear of the late listwaenite. (vi) The late-generation bodies cut different sections of the allochthonous. (vii) At the Fanja Half-Graben, listwaenite is in extensional fault contact with post-obductional sediments (uppermost Cretaceous Al-Khod Fm.). No listwaenite clasts are found within this formation. Our observations demonstrate that all listwaenite bodies formed during extension.