This paper provides an overview of research on core from Oman Drilling Project Hole BT1B and the surrounding area, plus new data and calculations, constraining processes in the Tethyan subduction zone beneath the Samail ophiolite. The area is underlain by gently dipping, broadly folded layers of allochthonous Hawasina pelagic sediments, the metamorphic sole of the Samail ophiolite, and Banded Unit peridotites at the base of the Samail mantle section. Despite reactivation of some faults during uplift of the Jebel Akdar and Saih Hatat domes, the area preserves the tectonic “stratigraphy” of the Cretaceous subduction zone. Gently dipping listvenite bands, parallel to peridotite banding and to contacts between the peridotite and the metamorphic sole, replace peridotite at and near the basal thrust. Listvenites formed at less than 200°C and (poorly constrained) depths of 25 to 40 km by reaction with CO2-rich, aqueous fluids migrating from greater depths, derived from devolatilization of subducting sediments analogous to clastic sediments in the Hawasina Formation, at 400-500°. Such processes could form important reservoirs for subducted CO2. Listvenite formation was accompanied by ductile deformation of serpentinites and listvenites – perhaps facilitated by fluid-rock reaction – in a process that could lead to aseismic subduction in some regions. Addition of H2O and CO2 to the mantle wedge, forming serpentinites and listvenites, caused large increases in the solid mass and volume of the rocks. This may have been accommodated by fractures formed as a result of volume changes, perhaps mainly at a serpentinization front.

The Oman Drilling Project established an “Active Alteration” multi-borehole observatory in dunite and harzburgite undergoing low-temperature serpentinization in the Samail ophiolite. The highly serpentinized rocks are in contact with strongly reducing fluids. Distinct hydrological regimes, governed by differences in rock porosity and fracture density, give rise to steep redox (Eh +200 to -750 mV) and pH (pH range 8.5 to 11.2) gradients within the 300 to 400 meter deep boreholes. The serpentinites and fluids host an active subsurface ecosystem. Microbial cell abundances vary at least 6 orders of magnitude, from ≤3.5*101 cells/g to 2.9*107 cells/gram. Low levels of biological sulfate reduction (2-1000 fmol/cm3/day) can be detected in rock cores, particularly in rocks in contact with reduced groundwaters with pH <10.5. Thermodesulfovibrio is the predominant sulfate reducer identified via metagenomic sequencing of adjacent groundwater communities. We infer that transport and reaction of microbially generated sulfide with the serpentine and brucite assemblages gives rise to optical darkening and sulfide overprinting, including the formation of tochilinite-vallerite group minerals, potentially serving as an indicator that this system is inhabited by microbial life. Olivine mesh-cores replaced with ferroan brucite and minor awaruite, abundant veins containing hydroandradite garnet and polyhedral serpentine, and late-stage carbonate veins are suggested as targets for future spatially-resolved life-detection investigations. The high-quality whole-round core samples that have been preserved can be further probed to define how life distributes itself and functions within a system where chemical disequilibria are sustained by low-temperature water/rock interaction, and how biosignatures of in-situ microbial activity are generated.

The Oman Drilling Project “Multi-Borehole Observatory” (MBO) samples an area of active weathering of tectonically exposed peridotite. This paper reviews the geology of the MBO region, summarizes recent research, and provides new data constraining ongoing alteration. Host rocks are partially to completely serpentinized, residual mantle harzburgites and replacive. Dunites show evidence for “reactive fractionation”, in which cooling, crystallizing magmas reacted with older residues of melting. Harzburgites and dunites are 65-100% hydrated. Ferric to total iron ratios vary from 50 to 90%. In Hole BA1B, alteration extent decreases with depth. Gradients in water and core composition are correlated. Serpentine veins are intergrown with, and cut, carbonate veins with measurable 14C. Ongoing hydration is accompanied by SiO2 addition. Sulfur enrichment in Hole BA1B may result from oxidative leaching of sulfur from the upper 30 m, coupled with sulfate reduction and sulfide precipitation at 30-150 m. Oxygen fugacity deep in Holes BA3A, NSHQ14 and BA2A is fixed by the reaction 2H2O = 2H2 + O2 combined with oxidation of ferrous iron in serpentine, brucite and olivine. fO2 deep in Holes BA1A, BA1D and BA4A is 3-4 log units above the H2O-H2 limit, controlled by equilibria involving serpentine and brucite. Variations in alteration are correlated with texture, with reduced, low SiO2 assemblages in mesh cores recording very low water/rock ratios, juxtaposed with adjacent veins recording much higher ratios. The proportion of reduced mesh cores vs oxidized veins increases with depth, and the difference in fO2 recorded in cores and veins decreases with depth.

Serpentinized peridotite is actively reacting with groundwater in the subsurface in the Samail ophiolite in Oman. Although these rocks are partially to completely serpentinized, they are steeped in a groundwater aquifer containing hyperalkaline fluids rich in H production that can continue at low temperature, even after primary olivine and pyroxene are exhausted, thereby sustaining habitable conditions for microbial life.