Abstract
Peculiar dunitic veins almost or totally free of spinels crosscut a podiform chromitite ore body in the Wadi Rajmi, northern Oman ophiolite. They probably originated from a komatiitic melt which was oversaturated in Fo (sub < or =94) olivines and which evolved to precipitate simultaneously both chromian spinels, with Cr# ranging from 0.6 to 0.8, and Fo (sub 91-93) olivines. The absence or the low modal amounts of spinels are possibly governed by a Cr-undersaturation state of the involved melt which crystallized under relatively low cooling rates to generate the spinel-free and the spinel-poor dunites. A shallow and highly depleted mantle source for this komatiitic melt was envisaged during a converging tectonic regime, initiated earlier in the dynamic history of the Oman ophiolite.