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The Sheahan Diamond Literature Reference Compilation - Scientific and Media Articles based on Major Keyword - Melting
The Sheahan Diamond Literature Reference Compilation is compiled by Patricia Sheahan who publishes on a monthly basis a list of new scientific articles related to diamonds as well as media coverage and corporate announcements called the Sheahan Diamond Literature Service that is distributed as a free pdf to a list of followers. Pat has kindly agreed to allow her work to be made available as an online digital resource at Kaiser Research Online so that a broader community interested in diamonds and related geology can benefit. The references are for personal use information purposes only; when available a link is provided to an online location where the full article can be accessed or purchased directly. Reproduction of this compilation in part or in whole without permission from the Sheahan Diamond Literature Service is strictly prohibited. Return to Diamond Keyword Index
Sheahan Diamond Literature Reference Compilation - Scientific Articles by Author for all years
Each article reference in the SDLRC is tagged with one or more key words assigned by Pat Sheahan to highlight the main topics of the article. In an effort to make it easier for users to track down articles related to a specific topic, KRO has extracted these key words and developed a list of major key words presented in this Key Word Index to which individual key words used in the article reference have been assigned. In most of the individual Key Word Reports the references are in crhonological order, though in some such as Deposits the order is first by key word and then chronological. Only articles classified as "technical" (mainly scientific journal articles) and "media" (independent media articles) are included in the Key Word Index. References that were added in the most recent monthly update are highlighted in yellow.
Volcanoes are vivid in the public's imagination, but almost absent is what takes place within the earth's mantle, the semi-solid layer between the molten outer core and the solid lithosphere (crust) whose convection cells drive plate tectonics. The key word melting tags articles which deal with the development of magmas within the mantle that manage to ascend into the lithosphere and become either igneous intrusions that chill before ever reaching the earth's surface or breach the surface as a volcanic eruption or basaltic flow. There is a wide range of magmatic intrusions which penetrate the crust, of which the most important for diamonds are kimberlites and lamproites, none of whose eruption at surface has ever been recorded as witnessed by human beings. Articles tagged as "melting" deal with the conditions that allow part of the mantle to melt into a magma with a distinct chemical composition that works its way through the mantle into the crust and ultimately in some cases onto the surface. This is a fascinating topic but written in very technical terms which means that the articles are universally of a scientific nature.
Gregoire, M., Tinguely, C., Bell, D.R., Le Roex, A.P.
Spinel lherzolite xenoliths from the Premier kimberlite ( Kaapvaal craton) South Africa: nature and evolution of the shallow upper mantle beneath Bushveld Complex.
Constraints on clinopyroxene/ melt partitioning of REE, Rb, Sr, Ti, Cr, Zr. Nb during mantle melting:insights from direct peridotite melting experiments 1.0 GPa
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 68, 23, pp. 4949-4962.
Srivastava, R.K., Heaman, L.M., Sinha, A.K., Shihua, S.
Emplacement age and isotope geochemistry of Sung Valley alkaline carbonatite complex, Shillong Plateau, northeastern India: implications for primary carbonate
Trace element partitioning between mica and amphibole bearing garnet lherzolite and hydrous basanitic melt: 1. experimental results and the investigation controls
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Online, available
A Hawaiian beginning for the Iceland plume: modelling of reconnaissance dat a for olivine hosted melt inclusions in Palaeogene picrite lavas East Greenland.
Melting relations in the chloride carbonate silicate systems at high pressure and model for formation of alkalic diamond forming liquids in the upper mantle.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, in press available
Zhang, H-F., Nakamura, E., Sun, M., Kobayashi,K., Zhang, J., Yang, J-F., Tang, Y-J.
Transformation of subcontinental lithospheric mantle through peridotite melt reaction: evidence from a highly fertile mantle xenolith from the North Chin a Craton.
International Geology Review, Vol. 49, 7, July pp. 658-679.
Guzmics, T., Zajacz, Z., Kodoenyi, J., Halter, W., Szabo, C.
LA ICP MS study of apatite and K feldspar hosted primary carbonatite melt inclusions in clinopyroxenite xenoliths from lamprophyres, Hungary: implications
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 72, 7, pp. 1864-1886.
Dasgupta, R., Hirschmann, M.M., McDonough, W.F., Spiegelman, M., Withers, A.C.
Trace element partitioning between garnet lherzolite and carbonatite at 6.6 and 8.6 GPa with application to the geochemistry of the mantle and mantle derived melts
Chemical Geology, Vol. 262, 1-2, May 15, pp. 57-77.
Tappe, S., Heaman, L.M., Smart, K.A., Muehlenbachs, K., Simonetti, A.
First results from Greenland eclogite xenoliths: evidence for an ultra depleted peridotitic component within the North Atlantic craton mantle lithosphere.
GAC/MAC/AGU Meeting held May 23-27 Toronto, Abstract only
Hydrogen partitioning between nominally anhydrous upper mantle minerals and melt between 3 and 5 GPa and applications to hydrous peridotite partial melting.
Chemical Geology, Vol. 262, 1-2, May 15, pp. 42-56.
Strain heating as a mechanism for partial melting and ultrahigh temperature metamorphism in convergent orogens: implications of temperature dependent thermal
Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115, B 12 B12417
Average compositions of igneous melts from main geodynamic settings according to the investigation of melt inclusions in minerals& quenched glasses of rocks.
Deep Seated Magmatism, its sources and plumes, Ed. Vladykin, N.V., pp. 171-204.
Experimental constraints on the storage conditions of peralkaline felsic magmas with implications on magmatic fluid compositions and transport of metallic elements
Peralk-Carb 2011, workshop held Tubingen Germany June 16-18, Abstract
Experiments on titanosilicates ( lamprophyllite group minerals and lomonosvite) melting: phase relations and petrological significance for Lovozero massif.
Peralk-Carb 2011, workshop held Tubingen Germany June 16-18, Poster
Adam, J., Oberti, R., Camara, F., Green, T.H., Rushmer, T.
The effect of water on equilibrium relations between clinopyroxenes and basanitic magmas: tracing water and non- volatile incompatible elements in the Earth's mantle.
Highly heterogeneous lithospheric mantle beneath the Central Zone of the North Chin a Craton evolved from Archean mantle through diverse melt refertilization.
Girnis, A.V., Bulatov, V.K., Brey, G.P., Gerdes, A., Hofer, H.E.
Trace element partitioning between mantle minerals and silico-carbonate melts at 6-12 Gpa and applications to mantle metasomatism and kimberlite genesis.
Chrome spinel hosted melt inclusions in Paleoproterozoic primitive volcanic rocks, northern Finland: evidence for coexistence and mixing of komatiitic and picritic magmas.
On the iron isotope heterogeneity of lithospheric mantle xenoliths: implications for mantle metasomatism, the origin of basalts and the iron isotope composition of the Earth.
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 165, 6, pp. 1243-1258.
Kimberlite: rapid ascent of lithospherically modified carbonatitic melts.
Proceedings of the 10th. International Kimberlite Conference, Vol. 1, Special Issue of the Journal of the Geological Society of India,, Vol.1, pp. 195-210.
Self consistent pressure scales based on the equations of state for ruby, diamond, MgO, B2-NaCl, as well as Au, Pt and other metals to 4 Mbar and 3000K.
Russian Geology and Geophysics, Vol. 54, pp. 181-199.
Melting phase equilibration temperatures of model carbonated peridotite from 8 to 12 Gpa in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2 and kimberlitic liquids in the Earth's upper mantle.
Speciation of and D/H partioning between fluids and melts in silicate D-O-H-C-N systems determined in-situ at upper mantle temperatures, pressures, and redox conditions.
Peridotites of the diamond stability field of the ancient craton lithospheric mantle: relationship with evolution of lithosphere roots and kimberlite melts generation.
Distribution and PGE mineralization in the formation of chromitite in ophiolite complexes ( Ospina-Kitoi Kharanur) and ultrabasic massifs of eastern Sayan, Southern Siberia.
Economic Geology Research Institute 2015, Vol. 17,, #3203, 1p. Abstract
Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, DOI 10.1007/ s00269-015-0765-6
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Carbonatic components of parental melts of the deeper mantle diamonds are inferred from their primary inclusions of (Mg, Fe, Ca, Na)-carbonate minerals trapped at PT conditions of the Earth’s transition zone and lower mantle. PT phase diagrams of MgCO3-FeCO3-CaCO3-Na2CO3 system and its ternary MgCO3-FeCO3-Na2CO3 boundary join were studied at pressures between 12 and 24 GPa and high temperatures. Experimental data point to eutectic solidus phase relations and indicate liquidus boundaries for completely miscible (Mg, Fe, Ca, Na)- and (Mg, Fe, Ca)-carbonate melts. PT fields for partial carbonate melts associated with (Mg, Fe)-, (Ca, Fe, Na)-, and (Na2Ca, Na2Fe)-carbonate solid solution phases are determined. Effective nucleation and mass crystallization of deeper mantle diamonds are realized in multicomponent (Mg, Fe, Ca, Na)-carbonatite-carbon melts at 18 and 26 GPa. The multicomponent carbonate systems were melted at temperatures that are lower than the geothermal ones. This gives an evidence for generation of diamond-parental carbonatite melts and formation of diamonds at the PT conditions of transition zone and lower mantle.
Abstract: The lithospheric mantle beneath West Antarctica has been characterized using petrology, whole-rock and mineral major element geochemistry, whole-rock trace element chemistry and Mössbauer spectroscopy data obtained on a suite of peridotite (lherzolite and harzburgite) and pyroxenite xenoliths from the Mount Morning eruptive centre, Southern Victoria Land. The timing of pyroxenite formation in Victoria Land overlaps with subduction of the Palaeo-Pacific plate beneath the Gondwana margin and pyroxenite is likely to have formed when fluids derived from, or modified by, melting of the subducting, eclogitic, oceanic crustal plate percolated through peridotite of the lithospheric mantle. Subsequent melting of lithospheric pyroxenite veins similar to those represented in the Mount Morning xenolith suite has contributed to the enriched trace element (and isotope) signatures seen in Cenozoic volcanic rocks from Mount Morning, elsewhere in Victoria Land and Zealandia. In general, the harzburgite xenoliths reflect between 20 and 30% melt depletion. Their depleted element budgets are consistent with Archaean cratonization ages and they have mantle-normalized trace element patterns comparable with typical subcontinental lithospheric mantle. The spinel lherzolite mineral data suggest a similar amount of depletion to that recorded in the harzburgites (20-30%), whereas plagioclase lherzolite mineral data suggest <15% melt depletion. The lherzolite (spinel and plagioclase) xenolith whole-rocks have compositions indicating <20% melt depletion, consistent with Proterozoic to Phanerozoic cratonization ages, and have mantle-normalized trace element patterns comparable with typical depleted mid-ocean ridge mantle. All peridotite xenoliths have undergone a number of melt-rock reaction events. Melting took place mainly in the spinel peridotite stability field, but one plagioclase peridotite group containing high-sodium clinopyroxenes is best modelled by melting in the garnet field. Median oxygen fugacity estimates based on Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements of spinel and pyroxene for spinel-facies conditions in the rifted Antarctic lithosphere are -0·6 ?log fO2 at Mount Morning and –1·0 ± 0·1 (1?) ?log fO2 for all of Victoria Land, relative to the fayalite-magnetite-quartz buffer. These values are in good agreement with a calculated global median value of -0·9 ± 0·1 (1?) ?log fO2 for mantle spinel-facies rocks from continental rift systems.
Geological Society of America Special Paper, No. 514, pp. SPE14-17.
Mantle
Melting, metasomatism
Abstract: Various hypotheses for the origin of alkaline sodic mafic magmas have been proposed. This diversity of models is mainly related to the various constraints used to develop them. The goal of this paper is to test these different models using petrological and geochemical constraints in an attempt to understand why alkaline sodic rocks are so similar even while their environment of formation varies from oceanic to continental rift. Incompatible trace-element contents of alkaline basalts from ocean islands and continents show that the sources of these rocks are more enriched than primitive mantle. A fundamental question then is how the sources of alkaline rocks acquire these trace-element enrichments. Recycled oceanic crust, with or without sediment, is often invoked as a source component of alkaline magmas to account for their trace-element and isotopic characteristics. However, the fact that melting of oceanic crust produces silica-rich liquids seems to exclude the direct melting of eclogite derived from mid-ocean-ridge basalt to produce alkaline lavas. Recycling oceanic crust in the source of alkaline magma requires either (1) that the mantle "digests" this component producing metasomatized CO2-rich peridotitic sources or (2) that low-degree melt from recycled oceanic crust reacts with peridotite in the presence of CO2, producing low-silica alkaline melt by olivine dissolution and orthopyroxene precipitation. These two hypotheses are plausible in terms of major elements. However, they have specific implications about the type and proportion of recycled lithologies present in the asthenosphere to explain the specific trace-element pattern of intraplate alkaline lavas. A third hypothesis for the formation of alkaline magmas is the melting of metasomatized lithosphere. In this model, the major- and trace-element signature of alkaline magma is not controlled by the asthenospheric source (i.e., the amount of oceanic crust or CO2 present in the asthenosphere), but by the petrological process that controls the percolation and differentiation of low-degree asthenospheric melts across the lithosphere. This process forms amphibole-bearing metasomatic veins that are a candidate source of alkaline rocks. This hypothesis offers an explanation for the generation of the Na-alkaline lavas with similar major- and trace-element composition that are observed worldwide and for the generation of K- and Na-alkaline magma observed in continental settings. This hypothesis requires the formation of significant amounts of metasomatic veins within the lithosphere. Qualitative analyses of the thermal implication of the potential models for the generation of alkaline rocks demonstrate that such magma requires low potential temperature (Tp: 1320 °C to 1350 °C). If temperatures are higher, melting of the convecting mantle will erase any signature of low-degree melts produced from fertile mantle lithologies. This analysis suggests that a role for hot thermal plumes in the generation of intraplate volcanoes dominated by alkaline magmas is unrealistic.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 432, pp. 199-209.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Experimental studies of OH solubility in peridotite minerals are of crucial importance for understanding some key geochemical, geophysical and geodynamical properties of the upper mantle. In reducing depths of the upper mantle, C-O-H fluids are dominated by CH4 and H2O. However, available experimental H-annealing of olivine concerning water storage capacity in the reducing upper mantle has been exclusively carried out by equilibrating olivine with H2O only. In this study, OH solubility in olivine has been investigated by annealing natural olivine crystals under peridotite-bearing and CH4-H2O-present conditions with piston cylinder and multi-anvil apparatus. Experiments were performed at 1-7 GPa and 1100-1350?°C and with oxygen fugacity controlled by Fe-FeO buffer, and OH solubilities were measured from polarized infrared spectra. The olivines show no change in chemical composition during the experiments. The infrared spectra of all the annealed olivines show OH bands in the range 3650-3000 cm?1, at both high (>3450 cm?1) and low (<3450 cm?1) frequency, and the bands at ?3400-3300 cm?1 are greatly enhanced above ?3 GPa and 1300?°C. The determined H2O solubility is ?90-385 ppm for the olivine coexisting with H2O (1-7 GPa and 1100?°C), and is ?40-380 ppm for the olivine coexisting with CH4-H2O (1-7 GPa and 1100-1350?°C). When CH4 is present in the equilibrium fluid, the H2O solubility is reduced by a factor of ?2.3 under otherwise identical conditions, indicating a strong effect of CH4 on the partitioning of water between olivine and coexisting fluid. The storage capacity of water in the reducing upper mantle is, modeled with the measured solubility of olivine and available partition coefficients of water between coexisting minerals, up to ?2 orders of magnitude lower than some previous estimates. Considering the temperature along the geotherm in the reducing oceanic upper mantle, the required H2O concentration to trigger hydrous melting is 250 and 535 ppm at ?100 and 210 km depth, respectively, and is even larger at greater depths. These values exceed the typical H2O abundance (?100±50 ppm?100±50 ppm) in the upper mantle, suggesting that pervasive hydrous melting at reducing depths of the oceanic upper mantle is not likely. Similar arguments may also be casted for the reducing deep upper mantle in the continental regions.
Wustite stability in the presence of CO2 -fluid and a carbonate silicate melt: implications for the graphite/diamond formation and generation of Fe-rich mantle metasomatic agents.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, in press available, 14p.
Canada, Africa, Russia
Melting
Abstract: Although terrestrial picritic magmas with FeOTOT ?13 wt.% are rare in the geological record, they were relatively common ca. 2.7 Ga during the Neoarchean episode of enhanced global growth of continental crust. Recent evidence that ferropicritic underplating played an important role in the ca. 2.74-2.70 Ga reworking of the Ungava craton provides the impetus for a comparison of ca. 2.7 Ga ferropicrite occurrences in the global Neoarchean magmatic record. In addition to the Fe-rich plutons of the Ungava craton, volumetrically minor ferropicritic flows, pyroclastic deposits, and intrusive rocks form parts of the Neoarchean greenstone belt stratigraphy of the Abitibi, Wawa, Wabigoon and Vermillion domains of the southern and western Superior Province. Neoarchean ferropicritic rocks also occur on five other Archean cratons: West Churchill, Slave, Yilgarn, Kaapvaal, and Karelia; suggesting that ca. 2.7 Ga Fe-rich magmatism was globally widespread.
Journal of Geophysical Research,, Vol. 120, 11, pp. 7440-7459.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: The behavior of volatiles in silicate-COH melts and fluids and hydrogen isotope fractionation between melt and fluid were determined experimentally to advance our understanding of the role of volatiles in magmatic processes. Experiments were conducted in situ while the samples were at the desired temperature and pressure to 825°C and ~1.6?GPa and with variable redox conditions. Under oxidizing conditions, melt and fluid comprised CO2, CO3, HCO3, OH, H2O, and silicate components, whereas under reducing conditions, the species were CH4, H2, H2O, and silicate components. Temperature-dependent hydrogen isotope exchange among structural entities within coexisting fluids and melts yields ?H values near 14 and 24?kJ/mol and ?5 and ?1?kJ/mol under oxidizing and reducing conditions, respectively. This temperature (and probably pressure)-dependent D/H fractionation is because of interaction between D and H and silicate and C-bearing species in silicate-saturated fluids and in COH fluid-saturated melts. The temperature- and pressure-dependent D/H fractionation factors suggest that partial melts in the presence of COH volatiles in the upper mantle can have ?D values 100% or more lighter relative to coexisting silicate-saturated fluid. This effect is greater under oxidizing than under reducing conditions. It is suggested that ?D variations of upper mantle mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) sources, inferred from the ?D of MORB magmatic rocks, can be explained by variations in redox conditions during melting. Lower ?D values of the MORB magma reflect more reducing conditions in the mantle source.
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 171, 16, 14p.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: In this paper, we show how the results of phase equilibria calculations in different mantle compositions can be reconciled with the evidence from natural mantle samples. We present data on the response of bulk rock density to pressure (P), temperature (T) and compositional changes in the lithospheric mantle and obtain constraints on the P T evolution recorded by mantle xenoliths. To do this, we examine the mantle xenolith suite from the Quaternary alkali basalts of Pali-Aike, Patagonia, using phase equilibria calculation in six representative compositions. The calculations were done subsolidus and in volatile-free conditions. Our results show that the density change related to the spinel peridotite to garnet peridotite transition is not sharp and strongly depends on the bulk composition. In a depleted mantle composition, this transition is not reflected in the density profile, while in a fertile mantle it leads to a relative increase in density with respect to more depleted compositions. In mantle sections characterized by hot geothermal gradients (~70 mW/m2), the spinel garnet transition may overlap with the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary. Phase equilibria calculations in peridotitic compositions representative of the Pali-Aike mantle were also used to constrain the origin and evolution of the mantle xenoliths. Our results indicate that the mineral modes and compositions, and the mineral zonation reported for the low-temperature peridotites (spinel and spinel + garnet harzburgites and lherzolites), are linked to a cooling event in the mantle which occurred long before the eruption of the host basalts. In addition, our phase equilibria calculations show that kelyphitic rims around garnets, as those observed in the high-temperature garnet peridotites from Pali-Aike, can be explained simply by decompression and do not require additional metasomatic fluid or melt.
Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, Vol. 3, 7p.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Because of the high energies involved, giant impacts that occur during planetary accretion cause large degrees of melting. The depth of melting in the target body after each collision determines the pressure and temperature conditions of metal-silicate equilibration and thus geochemical fractionation that results from core-mantle differentiation. The accretional collisions involved in forming the terrestrial planets of the inner Solar System have been calculated by previous studies using N-body accretion simulations. Here we use the output from such simulations to determine the volumes of melt produced and thus the pressure and temperature conditions of metal-silicate equilibration, after each impact, as Earth-like planets accrete. For these calculations a parameterised melting model is used that takes impact velocity, impact angle and the respective masses of the impacting bodies into account. The evolution of metal-silicate equilibration pressures (as defined by evolving magma ocean depths) during Earth’s accretion depends strongly on the lifetime of impact-generated magma oceans compared to the time interval between large impacts. In addition, such results depend on starting parameters in the N-body simulations, such as the number and initial mass of embryos. Thus, there is the potential for combining the results, such as those presented here, with multistage core formation models to better constrain the accretional history of the Earth.
Abstract: Concentrations of H2O, F, Cl, C, P, and S have been measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) in experimentally produced peridotite phases (including clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, olivine, garnet, amphibole, and mica) and coexisting basanitic glasses. Because only two experiments produced glasses on quenching (with the melt phase in others reverting to felt-like crystallite masses) H2O concentrations in melts were also separately determined from mass-balance relationships and by assuming constant H2O/La in melts and starting materials. The resulting values were used to calculate mineral/melt partition coefficients (D values) for H2O [where DH2Ocrystal/melt = (mass fraction of H2O in crystal)/(mass fraction of H2O in melt)] for conditions of 1025-1190 °C and 1.0-3.5 GPa. These gave 0.0064-0.0164 for clinopyroxene, 0.0046-0.0142 for orthopyroxene, 0.0015-0.0016 for olivine, and 0.0016-0.0022 for garnet. Although less information was obtained for the other volatiles, F was found to be significantly more compatible than H2O during peridotite melting, whereas Cl is significantly less compatible. S also has small but appreciable solubilities in amphiboles and micas, but not in pyroxenes or olivine. The solubility of C in silicate minerals appears to be negligible, although C was present in coexisting melts (~0.5 wt% as CO2) and as residual graphite during experiments. The D values for H2O in clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene are positively correlated with ivAl but negatively correlated with the H2O concentrations of melts (when considered as wt%). These relationships are consistent with the broad trends of previously published partitioning data. Although some of the concentration dependence can be related to cross-correlation between ivAl in pyroxenes and H2O concentrations in melts (via the latter’s control of liquidus temperatures) this relationship is too inconsistent to be a complete explanation. A concentration dependence for DH2Omineral/melt can also be independently predicted from speciation models for H2O in silicate melts. Thus it is likely that DH2Opyx/melt is influenced by both ivAl and the absolute concentration of H2O in melts. DH2O/DCe for clinopyroxene is inversely correlated with M2 site radii. Because the latter decrease with increasing pressure and temperature, relatively hot and/or deeply derived melts should be enriched in Ce relative to H2O when compared to melts from cooler and shallower mantle sources. Conversely, melts from H2O-rich settings (e.g., subduction zones) should have higher H2O/Ce than their source rocks. When combined with previously obtained partitioning data for non-volatile elements (from the same experiments), our data are consistent with the enrichment of intraplate basalt sources in both volatile and non-volatile incompatible elements by small-degree melts derived from local mid-ocean ridge basalt sources. In this way, volatiles can be seen to play an active role (via their promotion of partial-melting and metasomatic processes) in the auto-regulation of incompatible element concentrations in the depleted upper mantle.
Abstract: Archaean komatiites (ultramafic lavas) result from melting under extreme conditions of the Earth’s mantle. Their chemical compositions evoke very high eruption temperatures, up to 1,600 degrees Celsius, which suggests even higher temperatures in their mantle source1, 2. This message is clouded, however, by uncertainty about the water content in komatiite magmas. One school of thought holds that komatiites were essentially dry and originated in mantle plumes3, 4, 5, 6 while another argues that these magmas contained several per cent water, which drastically reduced their eruption temperature and links them to subduction processes7, 8, 9. Here we report measurements of the content of water and other volatile components, and of major and trace elements in melt inclusions in exceptionally magnesian olivine (up to 94.5?mole per cent forsterite). This information provides direct estimates of the composition and crystallization temperature of the parental melts of Archaean komatiites. We show that the parental melt for 2.7-billion-year-old komatiites from the Abitibi greenstone belt in Canada contained 30 per cent magnesium oxide and 0.6 per cent water by weight, and was depleted in highly incompatible elements. This melt began to crystallize at around 1,530 degrees Celsius at shallow depth and under reducing conditions, and it evolved via fractional crystallization of olivine, accompanied by minor crustal assimilation. As its major- and trace-element composition and low oxygen fugacities are inconsistent with a subduction setting, we propose that its high H2O/Ce ratio (over 6,000) resulted from entrainment into the komatiite source of hydrous material from the mantle transition zone10. These results confirm a plume origin for komatiites and high Archaean mantle temperatures, and evoke a hydrous reservoir in the deep mantle early in Earth’s history.
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, 8, pp. 3693-3697.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Seismic tomography models reveal two large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) that identify large-scale variations in temperature and composition in the deep mantle. Other characteristics include elevated density, elevated bulk sound speed, and sharp boundaries. We show that properties of LLSVPs can be explained by the presence of small quantities (0.3-3%) of suspended, dense Fe-Ni-S liquid. Trapping of metallic liquid is demonstrated to be likely during the crystallization of a dense basal magma ocean, and retention of such melts is consistent with currently available experimental constraints. Calculated seismic velocities and densities of lower mantle material containing low-abundance metallic liquids match the observed LLSVP properties. Small quantities of metallic liquids trapped at depth provide a natural explanation for primitive noble gas signatures in plume-related magmas. Our model hence provides a mechanism for generating large-scale chemical heterogeneities in Earth's early history and makes clear predictions for future tests of our hypothesis.
Abstract: The theory of plate tectonics describes how the surface of Earth is split into an organized jigsaw of seven large plates1 of similar sizes and a population of smaller plates whose areas follow a fractal distribution2, 3. The reconstruction of global tectonics during the past 200 million years4 suggests that this layout is probably a long-term feature of Earth, but the forces governing it are unknown. Previous studies3, 5, 6, primarily based on the statistical properties of plate distributions, were unable to resolve how the size of the plates is determined by the properties of the lithosphere and the underlying mantle convection. Here we demonstrate that the plate layout of Earth is produced by a dynamic feedback between mantle convection and the strength of the lithosphere. Using three-dimensional spherical models of mantle convection that self-consistently produce the plate size -frequency distribution observed for Earth, we show that subduction geometry drives the tectonic fragmentation that generates plates. The spacing between the slabs controls the layout of large plates, and the stresses caused by the bending of trenches break plates into smaller fragments. Our results explain why the fast evolution in small back-arc plates7, 8 reflects the marked changes in plate motions during times of major reorganizations. Our study opens the way to using convection simulations with plate-like behaviour to unravel how global tectonics and mantle convection are dynamically connected.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 447, pp. 151-160.
Mantle, Europe, Italy
Kimberlite formation, volcanism, melting
Abstract: Kimberlites are the most deep-seated magmas in the mantle and ascend to the surface at an impressive speed, travelling hundreds of kilometres in just hours while carrying a substantial load of xenolithic material, including diamonds. The ascent dynamics of these melts are buoyancy-controlled and certainly driven by outgassing of volatile species, presumably H2O and CO2, summing to concentration level of ca 15 -30 wt.% in kimberlite melts. We provide H2O -CO2 solubility data obtained on quenched glasses that are synthetic analogues of kimberlite melts (SiO2 content ranging from 18 to 28 wt.%). The experiments were conducted in the pressure range 100 to 350 MPa. While the CO2 solubility can reach 20 wt.%, we show that the H2O solubility in these low silica melts is indistinguishable from that found for basalts. Moreover, whereas in typical basalts most of the water exsolves at shallower pressure than the CO2, the opposite relationship is true for the low-SiO2 composition investigated. These data show that kimberlites can rise to depths of the upper crust without suffering significant degassing and must release large quantities of volatiles (>15 wt.%) within the very last few kilometres of ascent. This unconventional degassing path may explain the characteristic pipe, widening-upward from a ?2.5 km deep root zone, where kimberlites are mined for diamonds. Furthermore, we show that small changes in melt chemistry and original volatile composition (H2O vs. CO2) provide a single mechanism to explain the variety of morphologies of kimberlite pipes found over the world. The cooling associated to such massive degassing must freeze a large quantity of melt explaining the occurrence of hypabyssal kimberlite. Finally, we provide strong constraints on the primary volatile content of kimberlite, showing that the water content reported for kimberlite magma is mostly reflective of secondary alteration.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 186, pp. 207-225.
Mantle
Subduction, melting
Abstract: The subducted continental crust material will be gravitationally trapped in the deep mantle after having been transported to depths of greater than ?250 -300 km (the “depth of no return”). However, little is known about the status of this trapped continental material as well as its contribution to the mantle heterogeneity after achieving thermal equilibrium with the surrounding mantle. Here, we conduct an experimental study over pressure and temperature ranges of 9 -16 GPa and 1300 -1800 °C to constrain the fate of these trapped upper continental crust (UCC). The experimental results show that partial melting will occur in the subducted UCC along normal mantle geotherm to produce K-rich melt. The residual phases composed of coesite/stishovite + clinopyroxene + kyanite in the upper mantle, and stishovite + clinopyroxene + K-hollandite + garnet + CAS-phase in the mantle transition zone (MTZ), respectively. The residual phases achieve densities greater than the surrounding mantle, which provides a driving force for descent across the 410-km seismic discontinuity into the MTZ. However, this density relationship is reversed at the base of the MTZ, leaving the descended residues to be accumulated above the 660-km seismic discontinuity and may contribute to the “second continent”. The melt is ?0.6 -0.7 g/cm3 less dense than the surrounding mantle, which provides a buoyancy force for ascent of melt to shallow depths. The ascending melt, which preserves a significant portion of the bulk-rock rare earth elements (REEs), large ion lithophile elements (LILEs), and high-filed strength elements (HFSEs), may react with the surrounding mantle. Re-melting of the metasomatized mantle may contribute to the origin of the “enriched mantle sources” (EM-sources). Therefore, the deep subducted continental crust may create geochemical/geophysical heterogeneity in Earth’s interior through subduction, stagnation, partial melting and melt segregation.
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, 8, pp. 3693-3699.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Seismic tomography models reveal two large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) that identify large-scale variations in temperature and composition in the deep mantle. Other characteristics include elevated density, elevated bulk sound speed, and sharp boundaries. We show that properties of LLSVPs can be explained by the presence of small quantities (0.3 -3%) of suspended, dense Fe-Ni-S liquid. Trapping of metallic liquid is demonstrated to be likely during the crystallization of a dense basal magma ocean, and retention of such melts is consistent with currently available experimental constraints. Calculated seismic velocities and densities of lower mantle material containing low-abundance metallic liquids match the observed LLSVP properties. Small quantities of metallic liquids trapped at depth provide a natural explanation for primitive noble gas signatures in plume-related magmas. Our model hence provides a mechanism for generating large-scale chemical heterogeneities in Earth's early history and makes clear predictions for future tests of our hypothesis.
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, in press available 19p.
Asia, Tibet
Melting
Abstract: Felsic granulite xenoliths entrained in Miocene (~13 Ma) isotopically evolved, mantle-derived ultrapotassic volcanic (UPV) dykes in southern Tibet are refractory meta-granitoids with garnet and rutile in a near-anhydrous quartzo-feldspathic assemblage. High F-Ti (~4 wt.% TiO2 and ~3 wt.% F) phlogopite occurs as small inclusions in garnet, except for one sample where it occurs as flakes in a quartz-plagioclase-rich rock. High Si (~3.45) phengite is found as flakes in another xenolith sample. The refractory mineralogy suggests that the xenoliths underwent high-T and high-P metamorphism (800-850 °C, >15 kbar). Zircons show four main age groupings: 1.0-0.5 Ga, 50-45, 35-20, and 16-13 Ma. The oldest group is similar to common inherited zircons in the Gangdese belt, whereas the 50-45 Ma zircons match the crystallization age and juvenile character (?Hfi +0.5 to +6.5) of Eocene Gangdese arc magmas. Together these two age groups indicate that a component of the xenolith was sourced from Gangdese arc rocks. The 35-20 Ma Miocene ages are derived from zircons with similar Hf-O isotopic composition as the Eocene Gangdese magmatic zircons. They also have similar steep REE curves, suggesting they grew in the absence of garnet. These zircons mark a period of early Miocene remelting of the Eocene Gangdese arc. By contrast, the youngest zircons (13.0 ± 4.9 Ma, MSWD = 1.3) are not zoned, have much lower HREE contents than the previous group, and flat HREE patterns. They also have distinctive high Th/U ratios, high zircon ?18O (+8.73-8.97 ‰) values, and extremely low ?Hfi (?12.7 to ?9.4) values. Such evolved Hf-O isotopic compositions are similar to values of zircons from the UPV lavas that host the xenolith, and the flat REE pattern suggests that the 13 Ma zircons formed in equilibrium with garnet. Garnets from a strongly peraluminous meta-tonalite xenolith are weakly zoned or unzoned and fall into four groups, three of which are almandine-pyrope solid solutions and have low ?18O (+6 to 7.5 ‰), intermediate (?18O +8.5 to 9.0 ‰), and high ?18O (+11.0 to 12.0 ‰). The fourth is almost pure andradite with ?18O 10-12 ‰. Both the low and intermediate ?18O groups show significant variation in Fe content, whereas the two high ?18O groups are compositionally homogeneous. We interpret these features to indicate that the low and intermediate ?18O group garnets grew in separate fractionating magmas that were brought together through magma mixing, whereas the high ?18O groups formed under high-grade metamorphic conditions accompanied by metasomatic exchange. The garnets record complex, open-system magmatic and metamorphic processes in a single rock. Based on these features, we consider that ultrapotassic magmas interacted with juvenile 35-20 Ma crust after they intruded in the deep crust (>50 km) at ~13 Ma to form hybridized Miocene granitoid magmas, leaving a refractory residue. The ~13 Ma zircons retain the original, evolved isotopic character of the ultrapotassic magmas, and the garnets record successive stages of the melting and mixing process, along with subsequent high-grade metamorphism followed by low-temperature alteration and brecciation during entrainment and ascent in a late UPV dyke. This is an excellent example of in situ crust-mantle hybridization in the deep Tibetan crust.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, In press available 39p.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Hydrous melting at high pressures affects the physical properties, dynamics and chemical differentiation of the Earth. However, probing the compositions of hydrous melts at the conditions of the deeper mantle such as the transition zone has traditionally been challenging. In this study, we conducted high pressure multianvil experiments at 13 GPa between 1200 and 1900 °C to investigate the liquidus in the system MgO-SiO2-H2O. Water-rich starting compositions were created using platinic acid (H2Pt(OH)6) as a novel water source. As MgO:SiO2 ratios decrease, the T-XH2OXH2O liquidus curve develops an increasingly pronounced concave-up topology. The melting point reduction of enstatite and stishovite at low water contents exceeds that predicted by simple ideal models of hydrogen speciation. We discuss the implications of these results with respect to the behaviour of melts in the deep upper mantle and transition zone, and present new models describing the partitioning of water between the olivine polymorphs and associated hydrous melts.
Abstract: The composition of Earth's crust depends on the style of plate tectonics and of the melting regimes in the mantle. Analyses of the oldest identified rocks suggest that these styles and the resulting crust have changed over Earth's history.
Abstract: The thermophysical properties of silicate melts and glasses are of fundamental importance for the characterization of the dynamics and energetics of silicate melts on Earth and terrestrial planets. The heat capacity of silicate melts is of particular importance because of its implications for the temperature dependencies of melt enthalpy and entropy and for the potential relationship to melt structure and transport properties. Currently, there are reliable models for predicting the heat capacity of simple and multicomponent silicate glasses (Cpglass) as a function of composition and temperature. Recent differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements of heat capacity for multicomponent silicate liquid (Cpliquid), however, have shown that published models do not accurately reproduce heat capacity measurements on some silicate melts. Here, we have compiled a database of heat capacity values for hydrous and anhydrous multicomponent natural samples. The measurements are on pairs of glasses and melts over the compositional range (wt%) of: SiO2 (44-79), Al2O3 (5-35), TiO2 (0-3), FeOtot (0 ? 11); Na2O + K2O (0-27); CaO + MgO (0-39), H2O (0-6.3) and minor oxides. The compiled data show strong correlations between silica content (XSiO2) and the configurational heat capacity (Cpconfig) defined as Cpliquid ? Cpglass measured across the glass transition temperature (Tg). This correlation is used to establish an empirical model for predicting Cpliquid as a function of melt composition (i.e. SiO2 content) and values of Cpglass measured at the onset of the glass transition: Cpliquid=52.6-55.88XSiO2+CpglassCpliquid=52.6-55.88XSiO2+Cpglass. The model reproduces values of Cpliquid to within an average relative error of ~ 2.4%. Published models for the heat capacities of silicate melts (e.g., Stebbins, 1984; Richet and Bottinga, 1985; Lange and Navrotsky, 1992) applied to the same dataset have average relative errors in excess of 5.5%.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 454, pp. 103-112.
Mantle, Africa, Morocco
Melting
Abstract: Pyroxenites are often documented among exhumed mantle rocks, and can be found in most tectonic environments, from supra-subduction to sub-continental and sub-oceanic mantle. In particular, websterites, i.e. orthopyroxene-clinopyroxene bearing pyroxenites, are found in parallel layers in most orogenic and ophiolitic peridotites. Their formation is often ascribed to melt infiltration and melt-rock reaction processes accompanied by variable amount of deformation. One outstanding question is whether the ubiquitous occurrence of layered websterites in exhumed rocks is generally linked to the exhumation process or truly represents large-scale melt infiltration processes at depth prior to exhumation. These two hypotheses can be distinguished by comparing the exhumation and formation ages of the websterites. However, determination of the layered websterite formation age is challenging. Here we present a novel approach to constrain the formation age of websterite layers using samples from the Lherz massif (France), where layered websterites and lherzolites have formed through melt-rock reaction. By combining high-resolution REE variations, isotope model ages, and diffusive re-equilibration timescales using REE closure temperatures across the websterite layers, we constrain a minimum age and a maximum age for the formation of layered websterites. We show that layered websterites in Lherz formed 1,500-1,800 Ma ago, and are thus clearly disconnected from the process of exhumation at 104 Ma. Multiple generations of layered websterites commonly found in ultramafic massifs, along with the evidence for ancient melt-rock reaction in Lherz, indicate that melt-rock reactions can happen episodically or continuously in the mantle and that layered websterites found in exhumed mantle rocks record ubiquitous melt infiltration processes in the mantle.
Abstract: Mantle melting, which leads to the formation of oceanic and continental crust, together with crust recycling through plate tectonics, are the primary processes that drive the chemical differentiation of the silicate Earth. The present-day mantle, as sampled by oceanic basalts, shows large chemical and isotopic variability bounded by a few end-member compositions1. Among these, the HIMU end-member (having a high U/Pb ratio, ?) has been generally considered to represent subducted/recycled basaltic oceanic crust2, 3, 4, 5. However, this concept has been challenged by recent studies of the mantle source of HIMU magmas. For example, analyses of olivine phenocrysts in HIMU lavas indicate derivation from the partial melting of peridotite, rather than from the pyroxenitic remnants of recycled oceanic basalt6. Here we report data that elucidate the source of these lavas: high-precision trace-element analyses of olivine phenocrysts point to peridotite that has been metasomatized by carbonatite fluids. Moreover, similarities in the trace-element patterns of carbonatitic melt inclusions in diamonds7 and HIMU lavas indicate that the metasomatism occurred in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle, fused to the base of the continental crust and isolated from mantle convection. Taking into account evidence from sulfur isotope data8 for Archean to early Proterozoic surface material in the deep HIMU mantle source, a multi-stage evolution is revealed for the HIMU end-member, spanning more than half of Earth’s history. Before entrainment in the convecting mantle, storage in a boundary layer, upwelling as a mantle plume and partial melting to become ocean island basalt, the HIMU source formed as Archean-early Proterozoic subduction-related carbonatite-metasomatized subcontinental lithospheric mantle.
Abstract: Chromitites (aggregates of chromite or chromian spinel) inform us of various mantle processes, including magmatism, magma/peridotite reaction and mantle dynamics [1]. They typically form as magmatic cumulates from chromiteoversaturated melt within conduits in the mantle peridotite [2]. They are usually enveloped by replacive dunite [1]. In Oman, both concordant and discordant chromitites are of low-P (upper mantle) magmatic origin [3, 4]. Their chromite grains contain inclusions of pargasite, aspidolite and pyroxenes, which suggest low P. Mineral chemistry suggests involvement of MORB for the concordant chromitite, and of arc-related magma for the discrodant one. This is consistent with the switch of tectonic setting, from MOR to SSZ, for the Oman ophiolite magmatism. Only the concordant chromitite shows metamorphic characters, i.e. exsolution of diopside in chromite and outward diffusion of Ni (< 30 cm) in the dunite envelope [5], indicating its longer residence in the mantle. Ultra-high pressure (UHP) chromitites have been reported from the Tibetan and Polar Ural ophiolites [6, 7]. Most of their petrographic characteristics can be explained by UHP "metamorphism" of low-P magmatic chromitites above [8]. This may suggest recycling of low-P chromitite as deep as the transion-zone mantle [9]. The UHP chromitite is, however, still highly enigmatic: some characteristics, e.g., the amount and origin of carbon as diamond, are difficult to explain. High-T aqueous fluids containing Cl, S and C, can mobilize Cr and precipitate chromite in the mantle [10]. Chromite was dissolved and precipitated in/from high-T fluids which formed diopsidites in Oman. Chromite was concentrated to form thin "hydrothermal chromitite". Sub-arc metasomatized peridotites contain secondary chromite closely associated with fluid inclusions, indicating Cr mobility via fluids within the mantle wedge. Hydrothermal chromitites are expected in the mantle where fluid circulation is available.
Abstract: The bulk of the Earth’s volume is composed of the mantle-the layer of silicate rocks sandwiched between the dense, hot core and the thin crust. Although the mantle is mostly solid rock, it’s generally viscous: Slowly over millions of years, the material within the layer drifts, driving tectonic plates together and apart. Thus, the mantle’s influence can be seen on the planet’s surface on both large and small scales-from fueling volcanoes and seafloor expansion down to the composition and characteristics of igneous rocks. Most of the Earth’s mantle is composed of peridotite, an igneous rock rich in the mineral olivine. But previous research suggests that melted mantle pyroxenites-igneous rocks composed primarily of pyroxenes, minerals that contain 40% more silicon than olivine-may also be a source of oceanic lavas. New research by Lambart et al. seeks to better model how pyroxenites influence melting that occurs in the mantle. Pyroxenites make up between 2% and 10% of the upper mantle, depending on the region, but determining the amount of pyroxenites in hot mantle plumes to the surface requires more information. Researchers have found that at the same pressure, pyroxenites tend to melt at lower temperatures than peridotites, which means that any pyroxenites in peridotite-rich mantle regions might make up a larger portion of the liquid material than their small fraction of mantle bulk would suggest. To understand how the varying source materials in the mantle contribute to the characteristics of igneous rocks at the surface, researchers need to understand the melting characteristics of pyroxenites-a broad and variable group of rocks. That variability in composition makes predicting the phase changes of pyroxenites more complicated. And that complexity means that current models of mantle melting, like pMELTS, overestimate the temperature range over which pyroxenites melt. So the authors created a new parameterization for mantle melting models that seeks to rectify the problem. The new parameterization accounts for the fact that temperature, pressure, and the bulk chemical composition of the rocks together determine their near solidus temperature. The authors used a compilation of 183 experiments on pyroxenites with 25 varying chemical compositions, carried out over pressures from 0.9 to 5 gigapascals (GPa) and temperatures ranging from 1150°C to 1675°C. They charted the temperature when 5% of the materials was molten and the temperature at which clinopyroxene, a dominant mineral in pyroxenites, in each sample was gone-parameters that are easy to detect accurately and consistently. This analysis helped the authors create a new model based on experimental data from the literature, dubbed Melt-PX, which predicts the temperature at which the pyroxenites start to melt within 30°C and the amount of melting within 13%. It showed that at low pressure-less than 1 GPa-pyroxenites melt at lower temperatures than peridotites, but as pressure increases, more and more pyroxenites melt at higher temperatures than peridotites. The new model will be a useful tool to understand magma composition, ultimately giving researchers a window into the Earth and the source of oceanic basalts.
Abstract: The presence of melt during deformation produces a drastic change in the rheological behavior of the continental crust; rock strength is decreased even for melt fractions as low as ?7%. At pressure/temperature conditions typical of the middle to lower crust, melt-bearing systems may play a critical role in the process of strain localization and in the overall strength of the continental lithosphere. In this contribution we focus on the role and dynamics of melt flow in two different mid-crustal settings formed during the Brasiliano orogeny: (i) a large-scale anatectic layer in an orthogonal collision belt, represented by the Carlos Chagas anatexite in southeastern Brazil, and (ii) a strike-slip setting, in which the Espinho Branco anatexite in the Patos shear zone (northeast Brazil) serves as an analogue. Both settings, located in eastern Brazil, are part of the Neoproterozoic tectonics that resulted in widespread partial melting, shear zone development and the exhumation of middle to lower crustal layers. These layers consist of compositionally heterogeneous anatexites, with variable former melt fractions and leucosome structures. The leucosomes usually form thick interconnected networks of magma that reflect a high melt content (>30%) during deformation. From a comparison of previous work based on detailed petrostructural and AMS studies of the anatexites exposed in these areas, we discuss the rheological implications caused by the accumulation of a large volume of melt “trapped” in mid-crustal levels, and by the efficient melt extraction along steep shear zones. Our analyses suggest that rocks undergoing partial melting along shear settings exhibit layers with contrasting competence, implying successive periods of weakening and strengthening. In contrast, regions where a large amount of magma accumulates lack clear evidence of competence contrast between layers, indicating that they experienced only one major stage of dramatic strength drop. This comparative analysis also suggests that the middle part of both belts contained large volumes of migmatites, attesting that the orogenic root was partially molten and encompassed more than 30% of granitic melt at the time of deformation.
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 171, pp. 95-121.
Technology
Melting - peridotite
Abstract: Melting experiments have been performed at 3 GPa, between 1150 and 1450 °C, on a phlogopite-peridotite source in the garnet stability field. We succeeded to extract and determine the melt compositions of both phlogopite-bearing lherzolite and harzburgite from low to high degrees of melting (? = 0.008-0.256). Accounting for the presence of small amounts of F in the mantle, we determined that phlogopite coexists with melt >150 °C above the solidus position (1150-1200 °C). Fluorine content of phlogopite continuously increases during partial melting from 0.2 to 0.9 wt% between 1000 and 1150 °C and 0.5 to 0.6 wt% between 1150 and 1300 °C at 1 and 3 GPa, respectively. The phlogopite continuous breakdown in the lherzolite follows the reaction: 0.59 phlogopite + 0.52 clinopyroxene + 0.18 garnet = 0.06 olivine + 0.23 orthopyroxene + 1.00 melt. In the phlogopite-harzburgite, the reaction is: 0.93 phlogopite + 0.46 garnet = 0.25 olivine + 0.14 orthopyroxene + 1.00 melt. Melts from phlogopite-peridotite sources at 3 GPa are silica-undersaturated and are foiditic to trachybasaltic in composition from very low (0.8 wt%) to high (25.6 wt%) degrees of melting. As observed at 1 GPa, the potassium content of primary mantle melts is buffered by the presence of phlogopite, but the buffering values are higher, from 6.0 to 8.0 wt% depending on the source fertility. We finally show that phlogopite garnet-peridotite melts are very close to the composition of the most primitive post-collisional lavas described worldwide.
Abstract: Asthenosphere beneath the relatively thin lithosphere of the Basin and Range province appears to be juxtaposed in step-like fashion against the Colorado Plateau's thick lithospheric keel. Primary to near-primary basalts are found above this edge, in the San Francisco-Morman Mountain volcanic fields, north central Arizona, western USA. We show that at least two distinct peridotite-dominated mantle end-members contributed to the origin of the basalts. One has paired Nd and Hf isotopic characteristics that cluster near the mantle array and trace element patterns as expected for melts generated in the asthenosphere, possibly in the presence of garnet. The second has isotopic compositions displaced above the ?Hf - ?Nd mantle array which, together with its particular trace element characteristics, indicate contributions from hydrogenous sediments and/or melt (carbonatite or silicate)-related metasomatism. Melt equilibration temperatures obtained from Si- and Mg-thermobarometry are mostly 1340-1425°C and account for the effects of water (assumed to be 2 wt.%) and estimated CO2 (variable). Melt equilibration depths cluster at the inferred location of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary at ?70-75 km beneath the southwestern margin of the Colorado Plateau but scatter to somewhat greater values (?100 km). Melt generation may have initiated in or below the garnet-spinel facies transition zone by edge-driven convection and continued as mantle and/or melts upwelled, assimilating and sometimes equilibrating with shallower contaminated mantle, until melts were finally extracted.
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 171, pp. 95-106.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Melting experiments have been performed at 3 GPa, between 1150 and 1450 °C, on a phlogopite-peridotite source in the garnet stability field. We succeeded to extract and determine the melt compositions of both phlogopite-bearing lherzolite and harzburgite from low to high degrees of melting (? = 0.008-0.256). Accounting for the presence of small amounts of F in the mantle, we determined that phlogopite coexists with melt >150 °C above the solidus position (1150-1200 °C). Fluorine content of phlogopite continuously increases during partial melting from 0.2 to 0.9 wt% between 1000 and 1150 °C and 0.5 to 0.6 wt% between 1150 and 1300 °C at 1 and 3 GPa, respectively. The phlogopite continuous breakdown in the lherzolite follows the reaction: 0.59 phlogopite + 0.52 clinopyroxene + 0.18 garnet = 0.06 olivine + 0.23 orthopyroxene + 1.00 melt. In the phlogopite-harzburgite, the reaction is: 0.93 phlogopite + 0.46 garnet = 0.25 olivine + 0.14 orthopyroxene + 1.00 melt. Melts from phlogopite-peridotite sources at 3 GPa are silica-undersaturated and are foiditic to trachybasaltic in composition from very low (0.8 wt%) to high (25.6 wt%) degrees of melting. As observed at 1 GPa, the potassium content of primary mantle melts is buffered by the presence of phlogopite, but the buffering values are higher, from 6.0 to 8.0 wt% depending on the source fertility. We finally show that phlogopite garnet-peridotite melts are very close to the composition of the most primitive post-collisional lavas described worldwide.
Abstract: Evidence for chemical and lithological heterogeneity in the Earth’s convecting mantle is widely acknowledged, yet the major element signature imparted on mantle melts by this heterogeneity is still poorly resolved. In this study, a recent thermodynamic melting model is tested on a range of compositions that correspond to potential mantle lithologies (harzburgitic to pyroxenitic), to demonstrate its applicability over this compositional range, in particular for pyroxenite melting. Our results show that, despite the model’s calibration in peridotitic systems, it effectively reproduces experimental partial melt compositions for both Si-deficient and Si-excess pyroxenites. Importantly, the model accurately predicts the presence of a free silica phase at high pressures in Si-excess pyroxenites, indicating the activation of the pyroxene-garnet thermal divide. This thermal divide has a dominant control on solidus temperature, melt productivity and partial melt composition. The model is used to make new inferences on the link between mantle composition and melting behaviour. In silica-deficient and low-pressure (olivine-bearing) lithologies, melt composition is not very sensitive to source composition. Linearly varying the source composition between peridotite and basaltic pyroxenite, we find that the concentration of oxides in the melt tends to be buffered by the increased stability of more fusible phases, causing partial melts of even highly fertile lithologies to be similar to those of peridotite. An exception to this behaviour is FeO, which is elevated in partial melts of silica-deficient pyroxenite even if the bulk composition does not have a high FeO content relative to peridotite. Melt Al2O3 and MgO vary predominantly as a function of melting depth rather than bulk composition. We have applied the thermodynamic model to test the hypothesis that Fe-rich mantle melts such as ferropicrites are derived by partial melting of Si-deficient pyroxenite at elevated mantle potential temperatures. We show that the conspicuously high FeO in ferropicrites at a given MgO content does not require a high-Fe mantle source and is indeed best matched by model results involving around 0-20% melting of silica-deficient pyroxenite. A pyroxenite source lithology also accounts for the low CaO content of ferropicrites, whereas their characteristic low Al2O3 is a function of their high pressure of formation. Phanerozoic ferropicrites are exclusively located in continental flood basalt (CFB) provinces and this model of formation confirms that lithological heterogeneity (perhaps recycled oceanic crust) is present in CFB mantle sources.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 200, pp. 408-421.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Hydrous melting at high pressures affects the physical properties, dynamics and chemical differentiation of the Earth. However, probing the compositions of hydrous melts at the conditions of the deeper mantle such as the transition zone has traditionally been challenging. In this study, we conducted high pressure multianvil experiments at 13 GPa between 1200 and 1900 °C to investigate the liquidus in the system MgO-SiO2-H2O. Water-rich starting compositions were created using platinic acid (H2Pt(OH)6) as a novel water source. As MgO:SiO2 ratios decrease, the T-XH2OT-XH2O liquidus curve develops an increasingly pronounced concave-up topology. The melting point reduction of enstatite and stishovite at low water contents exceeds that predicted by simple ideal models of hydrogen speciation. We discuss the implications of these results with respect to the behaviour of melts in the deep upper mantle and transition zone, and present new models describing the partitioning of water between the olivine polymorphs and associated hydrous melts.
European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017, Vienna April 23-28, 1p. 4773 Abstract
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Ultrabasic peridotites and pyroxenites together with basic eclogites are the upper-mantle in situ rocks among xenoliths in kimberlites. Occasionally their diamond-bearing varieties have revealed within the xenoliths. Therewith the compositions of rock-forming minerals demonstrate features characteristic for primary diamond-included minerals of peridotite and eclogite parageneses (the elevated contents of Cr-component in peridotitic garnets and Na-jadeitic component in eclogitic clinopyroxenes). High-pressure experimental study of melting equilibria on the multicomponent peridotie-pyroxenite system olivine Ol - orthopyroxene Opx - clinopyroxene Cpx - garnet Grt showed that Opx disappeared in the peritectic reaction Opx+L?Cpx (Litvin, 1991). As a result, the invariant peritectic equilibrium Ol+Opx+Cpx+Grt+L of the ultrabasic system was found to transform into the univariant cotectic assemblage Ol+Cpx+Grt+L. Further experimental investigation showed that olivine reacts with jadeitic component (Jd) with formation of garnet at higher 4.5 GPa (Gasparik, Litvin, 1997). Study of melting relations in the multicomponent system Ol - Cpx - Jd permits to discover the peritectic point Ol+Omph+Grt+L (where Omph - omphacitic clinopyroxene) at concentration 3-4 wt.% Jd-component in the system. The reactionary loss of Opx and Ol makes it possible to transform the 4-phase garnet lherzolite ultrabasic association into the bimineral eclogite assemblage. The regime of fractional Ol, Cpx and Grt crystallization must be accompanied by increasing content of jadeitic component in residual melts that causes the complete "garnetization of olivine". In the subsequent evolution, the melts would have to fractionate for basic SiO2-saturated compositions responsible for petrogenesis of eclogite varieties marked with accessory corundum Crn, kyanite Ky and coesite Coe. Both the peritectic mechanisms occur in regime of fractional crystallization. The sequence of the upper-mantle fractional ultrabasic-basic magmatic evolution and petrogenesis may be controlled by the following melting relations: from Ol, Opx, L field to cotectic curve Ol, Opx, Cpx, L, peritectic point Ol, Opx, Cpx, Grt, L (loss of Opx), cotectic curve Ol, (Cpx+Jd), Grt, L, peritectic point Ol, (Cpx?Omph), Grt, L (loss of Ol), divariant field Omph,Grt,L, cotectic curve Ky, Omph, Grt, L, eutectic point Ky,Coe,Omph, Grt,L, subsolidus assemblage Ky,Coe,Omph, Grt. The fractional ultrabasic-basic evolution of the upper-mantle silicate-carbonate-carbon melts-solutions, which are responsible for genesis of diamond-and-inclusions associations and diamond-bearing peridotites and eclogites, follows the similar physico-chemical mechanisms (Litvin et al., 2016). This is illustrated by fractional syngenesis diagram for diamonds and associated minerals which construction is based on evidence from high pressure experiments. References Gasparik T., Litvin Yu.A (1997). Stability of Na2Mg2Si2O7 and melting relations on the forsterite - jadeite join at pressures up to 22 GPa.
European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017, Vienna April 23-28, 1p. 4785 Abstract
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: Melting relations of the lower-mantle magmatic system MgO - FeO - CaO - SiO2 are characterized by peritectic reaction of bridgmanite (Mg,Fe)SiO3 and melt with formation of Fe-rich phases of periclase-wustite solid solutions (MgO•FeO)ss and stishovite SiO2. The reaction proceeds also in melts-solutions of lower-mantle diamond-parental system MgO - FeO - CaO - SiO2 - (Mg-Fe-Ca-Na-carbonate) - C. Xenoliths of lower mantle rocks were never found among the deep mantle derived materials. Estimation of lower-mantle mineralogy as ferropericlase+ bridgmanite+ Ca-perovskite association is inferred from high-pressure subsolidus experiments with ultrabasic pyrolite composition (Akaogi, 2007). The paradoxical in situ paragenesis of stishovite and ferropericlase as primary inclusions in lower-mantle diamonds (Kaminsky, 2012) takes its explanation from the bridgmanite peritectic reaction (effect of "stishovite paradox") (Litvin et al., 2014). Based on the data for inclusions, physico-chemical study on syngenesis of diamonds and primary inclusions has experimentally revealed the ferropericlase-bridgmanite-Ca-perovskite-stishovite-magnesiowustite-(Mg-Fe-Ca-Na-carbonate)-carbon compositions of the lower-mantle diamond-forming system .(Litvin et al., 2016). The generalized diagram of diamong-forming media characterizes the variable compositions of growths melts for diamonds and paragenetic phases and their genetic relationships with lower mantle matter, and it is the reason for genetic classifying primary inclusions. Fractional ultrabasic-basic evolution and continuous paragenetic transition from ultrabasic bridgmanite-ferropericlase to basic stishovite-magnesiowustite assemblages in the of lower-mantle diamond-parental melts-solutions are providing by the physico-chemical mechanism of stishovite paradox. References Akaogi M. (2007). Phase transformations of minerals in the transition zone and upper part of the lower mantle.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 204, pp. 68-82.
Mantle
Melting
Abstract: High-pressure and high-temperature melting experiments were conducted in the systems Mg2SiO4-H2O and MgSiO3-H2O at 6 and 13 GPa and between 1150 and 1900 °C in order to investigate the effect of H2O on melting relations of forsterite and enstatite. The liquidus curves in both binary systems were constrained and the experimental results were interpreted using a thermodynamic model based on the homogeneous melt speciation equilibrium, H2O + O2? = 2OH?, where water in the melt is present as both molecular H2O and OH? groups bonded to silicate polyhedra. The liquidus depression as a function of melt H2O concentration is predicted using a cryoscopic equation with the experimental data being reproduced by adjusting the water speciation equilibrium constant. Application of this model reveals that in hydrous MgSiO3 melts at 6 and 13 GPa and in hydrous Mg2SiO4 melts at 6 GPa, water mainly dissociates into OH? groups in the melt structure. A temperature dependent equilibrium constant is necessary to reproduce the data, however, implying that molecular H2O becomes more important in the melt with decreasing temperature. The data for hydrous forsterite melting at 13 GPa are inconclusive due to uncertainties in the anhydrous melting temperature at these conditions. When applied to results on natural peridotite melt systems at similar conditions, the same model infers the presence mainly of molecular H2O, implying a significant difference in physicochemical behaviour between simple and complex hydrous melt systems. As pressures increase along a typical adiabat towards the base of the upper mantle, both simple and complex melting results imply that a hydrous melt fraction would decrease, given a fixed mantle H2O content. Consequently, the effect of pressure on the depression of melting due to H2O could not cause an increase in the proportion, and hence seismic visibility, of melts towards the base of the upper mantle.
Abstract: The oldest known samples of Earth, with ages of up to 4.4?Gyr, are detrital zircon grains in meta-sedimentary rocks of the Jack Hills in Australia. These zircons offer insights into the magmas from which they crystallized, and, by implication, igneous activity and tectonics in the first 500 million years of Earth’s history, the Hadean eon. However, the compositions of these magmas and the relative contributions of igneous and sedimentary components to their sources have not yet been resolved. Here we compare the trace element concentrations of the Jack Hills zircons to those of zircons from the locality where igneous (I-) and sedimentary (S-) type granites were first distinguished. We show that the Hadean zircons crystallized predominantly from I-type magmas formed by melting of a reduced, garnet-bearing igneous crust. Further, we propose that both the phosphorus content of zircon and the ratio of phosphorus to rare earth elements can be used to distinguish between detrital zircon grains from I- and S-type sources. These elemental discriminants provide a new geochemical tool to assess the relative contributions of primeval magmatism and melting of recycled sediments to the continents over geological time.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 463, pp. 25-35.
United States
melting
Abstract: We report from converted seismic waves, a pervasive seismically anomalous layer above the transition zone beneath the western US. The layer, characterized by an average shear wave speed reduction of 1.6%, spans over an area of ?1.8×106 km2?1.8×106 km2 with thicknesses varying between 25 and 70 km. The location of the layer correlates with the present location of a segment of the Farallon plate. This spatial correlation and the sharp seismic signal atop of the layer indicate that the layer is caused by compositional heterogeneity. Analysis of the seismic signature reveals that the compositional heterogeneity can be ascribed to a small volume of partial melt (0.5 ± 0.2 vol% on average). This article presents the first high resolution map of the melt present within the layer. Despite spatial variations in temperature, the calculated melt volume fraction correlates strongly with the amplitude of P-S conversion throughout the region. Comparing the values of temperature calculated from the seismic signal with available petrological constraints, we infer that melting in the layer is caused by release of volatiles from the subducted Farallon slab. This partially molten zone beneath the western US can sequester at least 1.2×1017 kg1.2×1017 kg of volatiles, and can act as a large regional reservoir of volatile species such as H or C.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 467, pp. 89-98.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: We present the results of thermo-mechanical modelling of extension and breakup of a heterogeneous continental lithosphere, subjected to plume impingement in presence of intraplate stress field. We incorporate partial melting of the extending lithosphere, underlying upper mantle and plume, caused by pressure-temperature variations during the thermo-mechanical evolution of the conjugate passive margin system. Effects of melting included in the model account for thermal effects, causing viscosity reduction due to host rock heating, and mechanical effects, due to cohesion loss. Our study provides better understanding on how presence of melts can influence the evolution of rifting. Here we focus particularly on the role of melting for the temporal and spatial evolution of passive margin geometry and rift migration. Depending on the lithospheric structure, melt presence may have a significant impact on the characteristics of areas affected by lithospheric extension. Pre-existing lithosphere heterogeneities determine the location of initial breakup, but in presence of plumes the subsequent evolution is more difficult to predict. For small distances between plume and area of initial rifting, the development of symmetric passive margins is favored, whereas increasing the distance promotes asymmetry. For a plume-rifting distance large enough to prevent interaction, the effect of plumes on the overlying lithosphere is negligible and the rift persists at the location of the initial lithospheric weakness. When the melt effect is included, the development of asymmetric passive continental margins is fostered. In this case, melt-induced lithospheric weakening may be strong enough to cause rift jumps toward the plume location.
Abstract: The generation of strongly potassic melts in the mantle is generally thought to require the presence of phlogopite in the melting assemblage. In the Mediterranean region, trace element and isotope compositions indicate that continental crustal material is involved in the generation of many potassium-rich lavas. This is clearest in ultrapotassic rocks like lamproites and shoshonites, for which the relevant chemical signals are less diluted by extensive melting of peridotite. Furthermore, melting occurs here in young lithosphere, so the continental crust was not stored for a long period of time in the mantle before reactivation. We have undertaken two types of experiments to investigate the reaction between crust and mantle at 1000-1100 °C and 2-3 GPa. In the first, continental crustal metasediment (phyllite) and depleted peridotite (dunite) were juxtaposed as separate blocks, whereas in the second, the same rock powders were intimately mixed. In the first series, a clear reaction zone dominated by orthopyroxene was formed between dunite and phyllite but no hybridized melt could be found, whereas analyzable pools of hybridized melt occurred throughout the charges in the second series. Melt compositions show high abundances of Rb (100-220 ppm) and Ba (400-870 ppm), and consistent ratios of Nb/Ta (10-12), Zr/Hf (34-42), and Rb/Cs (28-34), similar to bulk continental crust. These experiments demonstrate that melts with as much as 5 wt% K2O may result from reaction between melts of continent-derived sediment and depleted peridotite at shallow mantle depths without the need for phlogopite or any other potassic phase in the residue.
Abstract: The composition of Earth's oldest crust is uncertain. Comparison of the most ancient mineral grains with more recent analogues suggests that formation of the earliest crust was heavily influenced by re-melting of igneous basement rocks.
Abstract: Accretion from primordial material and its subsequent differentiation into a planet with core and mantle are fundamental problems in terrestrial and solar system. Many of the questions about the processes, although well developed as model scenarios over the last few decades, are still open and much debated. In the early Earth, during its formation and differentiation into rocky mantle and iron-rich core, it is likely that silicate melts played an important part in shaping the Earth's main reservoirs as we know them today. Here, we review several recent results in a deep magma ocean scenario that give tight constraints on the early evolution of our planet. These results include the behaviour of some siderophile elements (Ni and Fe), lithophile elements (Nb and Ta) and one volatile element (Helium) during Earth's core formation. We will also discuss the melting and crystallization of an early magma ocean, and the implications on the general feature of core-mantle separation and the depth of the magma ocean. The incorporation of Fe2 + and Fe3 + in bridgmanite during magma ocean crystallization is also discussed. All the examples presented here highlight the importance of the prevailing conditions during the earliest time of Earth's history in determining the composition and dynamic history of our planet.
Abstract: Plutons associated with a 1.4 Ga magmatic event intrude across southwestern Laurentia. The tectonic setting of this major magmatic province is poorly understood. Proposed melting models include anorogenic heating from the mantle, continental arc or transpressive orogeny, and anatexis from radiogenic heat buildup in thickened crust. Re-Os analyses of refractory mantle xenoliths from the Navajo volcanic field (NVF; central Colorado Plateau) yield Re depletion ages of 2.1–1.7 Ga, consistent with the age of the overlying Yavapai and Mazatzal crust. However, new Sm-Nd isotope data from clinopyroxene in peridotite xenoliths from NVF diatremes show a subset of xenoliths that plot on a ca. 1.4 Ga isochron, which likely reflects mantle melt production and isotopic resetting at 1.4 Ga. This suggests that Paleoproterozoic subcontinental lithospheric mantle was involved in the 1.4 Ga magmatic event. Our constraints support a subduction model for the generation of the 1.4 Ga granites but are inconsistent with rifting and anorogenic anatexis models, both of which would require removal of ancient lithosphere.
Abstract: Oceanic crust is created by the extraction of molten rock from underlying mantle at the seafloor ‘spreading centres’ found between diverging tectonic plates. Modelling studies have suggested that mantle melting can occur through decompression as the mantle flows upwards beneath spreading centres, but direct observation of this process is difficult beneath the oceans. Continental rifts, however—which are also associated with mantle melt production—are amenable to detailed measurements of their short-term kinematics using geodetic techniques. Here we show that such data can provide evidence for an upwelling mantle flow, as well as information on the dimensions and timescale of mantle melting. For North Island, New Zealand, around ten years of campaign and continuous GPS measurements in the continental rift system known as the Taupo volcanic zone reveal that it is extending at a rate of 6-15?millimetres per year. However, a roughly 70-kilometre-long segment of the rift axis is associated with strong horizontal contraction and rapid subsidence, and is flanked by regions of extension and uplift. These features fit a simple model that involves flexure of an elastic upper crust, which is pulled downwards or pushed upwards along the rift axis by a driving force located at a depth greater than 15?kilometres. We propose that flexure is caused by melt-induced episodic changes in the vertical flow forces that are generated by upwelling mantle beneath the rift axis, triggering a transient lower-crustal flow. A drop in the melt fraction owing to melt extraction raises the mantle flow viscosity and drives subsidence, whereas melt accumulation reduces viscosity and allows uplift—processes that are also likely to occur in oceanic spreading centres.
Abstract: Mantle xenoliths hosted in Cenozoic alkaline rocks of northern Madagascar (Massif d'Ambre and Bobaomby volcanic fields) are spinel lherzolites, harzburgites and rare websterites. Petrography, electron microprobe, LA-ICP-MS and thermal ionization mass spectrometry techniques allowed to recognize domains characterized by variable degree of partial melting and extent of re-enrichment processes: 1) refractory spinel-to-spinel + plagioclase-lherzolites, with clinopyroxenes having marked LREE (Light Rare Earth Elements) depletion ((La/Yb)N ~ 0.2) and very high 143Nd/144Nd (0.513594), which represent a limited and shallow portion of old mantle that suffered low degree partial melting (2–3%) and was later accreted to the lithosphere. These lherzolites acted as a low-porosity region, being, in places, percolated by small volumes of melts shortly before eruption; 2) lherzolites and harzburgites that suffered variable degrees of partial melt extraction (up to 15%), assisted and/or followed by pervasive, porous flow infiltration of alkaline melts in a relatively large porosity region, leading to the creation of a wide area rich in secondary mineral phases (i.e. olivine, clinopyroxene and pargasitic amphibole), enriched in incompatible elements (e.g., LaN/YbN in clinopyroxene up to 15) and having radiogenic Sr and unradiogenic Nd; 3) websterites and wehrlite-bearing samples that record differentiation processes of alkaline melts highly enriched in Th, U and LREE, not yet documented in the erupted volcanics of northern Madagascar. The mantle xenoliths of northern Madagascar show a regional decrease of the equilibration temperature from to SW (up to 1180 °C, Nosy Be Archipelago) to the NE (up to 900 °C, Bobaomby district). A significant lithologic and geochemical variation of the shallow lithospheric mantle beneath northern Madagascar is noted, in contrast with the relatively uniform geochemical and isotopic composition of the host alkali basalt and basanite lavas.
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Vol. 265, pp. 67-81.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Knowledge of melting properties is critical to predict the nature and the fate of melts produced in the deep mantle. Early in the Earth’s history, melting properties controlled the magma ocean crystallization, which potentially induced chemical segregation in distinct reservoirs. Today, partial melting most probably occurs in the lowermost mantle as well as at mid upper-mantle depths, which control important aspects of mantle dynamics, including some types of volcanism. Unfortunately, despite major experimental and theoretical efforts, major controversies remain about several aspects of mantle melting. For example, the liquidus of the mantle was reported (for peridotitic or chondritic-type composition) with a temperature difference of ?1000 K at high mantle depths. Also, the Fe partitioning coefficient (DFeBg/melt) between bridgmanite (Bg, the major lower mantle mineral) and a melt was reported between ?0.1 and ?0.5, for a mantle depth of ?2000 km. Until now, these uncertainties had prevented the construction of a coherent picture of the melting behavior of the deep mantle. In this article, we perform a critical review of previous works and develop a coherent, semi-quantitative, model. We first address the melting curve of Bg with the help of original experimental measurements, which yields a constraint on the volume change upon melting (?Vm). Secondly, we apply a basic thermodynamical approach to discuss the melting behavior of mineralogical assemblages made of fractions of Bg, CaSiO3-perovskite and (Mg,Fe)O-ferropericlase. Our analysis yields quantitative constraints on the SiO2-content in the pseudo-eutectic melt and the degree of partial melting (F) as a function of pressure, temperature and mantle composition; For examples, we find that F could be more than 40% at the solidus temperature, except if the presence of volatile elements induces incipient melting. We then discuss the melt buoyancy in a partial molten lower mantle as a function of pressure, F and DFeBg/melt. In the lower mantle, density inversions (i.e. sinking melts) appear to be restricted to low F values and highest mantle pressures. The coherent melting model has direct geophysical implications: (i) in the early Earth, the magma ocean crystallization could not occur for a core temperature higher than ?5400 K at the core-mantle boundary (CMB). This temperature corresponds to the melting of pure Bg at 135 GPa. For a mantle composition more realistic than pure Bg, the right CMB temperature for magma ocean crystallization could have been as low as ?4400 K. (ii) There are converging arguments for the formation of a relatively homogeneous mantle after magma ocean crystallization. In particular, we predict the bulk crystallization of a relatively large mantle fraction, when the temperature becomes lower than the pseudo-eutectic temperature. Some chemical segregation could still be possible as a result of some Bg segregation in the lowermost mantle during the first stage of the magma ocean crystallization, and due to a much later descent of very low F, Fe-enriched, melts toward the CMB. (iii) The descent of such melts could still take place today. There formation should to be related to incipient mantle melting due to the presence of volatile elements. Even though, these melts can only be denser than the mantle (at high mantle depths) if the controversial value of DFeBg/melt is indeed as low as suggested by some experimental studies. This type of melts could contribute to produce ultra-low seismic velocity anomalies in the lowermost mantle.
Russian Geology and Geophysics, Vol. 58, pp. 1093-1100.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: New experimental data on the temperature and pressure dependences of the viscosity of synthetic hydrous kimberlite melts (82 wt.% silicate + 18 wt.% carbonate; degree of depolymerization: 100NBO/T = 313 for anhydrous melts and 100NBO/T = 247 for melts with 3 wt.% H2O) were obtained at a water pressure of 100 MPa and at lithostatic pressures of 5.5 and 7.5 GPa in the temperature range 1300-1950 °C. The temperature dependence of the viscosity of these melts follows the exponential Arrhenius-Frenkel-Eyring equation in the investigated range of temperatures and pressures. The activation energies of viscous flow for hydrous kimberlite melts were first shown to increase linearly with increasing pressure. Under isothermal conditions (T = 1800 °C), the viscosity of hydrous kimberlite melts increases exponentially by about an order of magnitude as the pressure increases from 100 MPa to 7.5 GPa. The new experimental data on the viscosity of hydrous kimberlite melts (error ± 30 rel.%) are compared with forecast viscosity data for anhydrous kimberlite and basaltic melts (100NBO/T = 51.5) and for hydrous basaltic melts (100NBO/T = 80). It is shown that at comparable temperatures, the viscosity of hydrous kimberlite melts at a moderate pressure (100 MPa) is about an order of magnitude lower than the viscosity of hydrous basaltic melts, whereas at a high pressure (7.5 GPa) it is more than twice higher. It is first established that water dissolution in kimberlite melts does not affect seriously their viscosity (within the measurement error) at both moderate (100 MPa) and high (7.5 GPa) pressures, whereas the viscosity of basaltic melts considerably decreases with water dissolution at moderate pressures (100 MPa) and remains unchanged at high pressures (P > 3.5 GPa).
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 10.1007/ s00410-018-1478-x 10p.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Ni, Co, and Zn are widely distributed in the Earth’s mantle as significant minor elements that may offer insights into the chemistry of melting in the mantle. To better understand the distribution of Ni2+, Co2+, and Zn2+ in the most abundant silicate phases in the transition zone and the upper mantle, we have analyzed the crystal chemistry of wadsleyite (Mg2SiO4), ringwoodite (Mg2SiO4), forsterite (Mg2SiO4), and clinoenstatite (Mg2Si2O6) synthesized at 12-20 GPa and 1200-1400 °C with 1.5-3 wt% of either NiO, CoO, or ZnO in starting materials. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses demonstrate that significant amounts of Ni, Co, and Zn are incorporated in octahedral sites in wadsleyite (up to 7.1 at%), ringwoodite (up to 11.3 at%), olivine (up to 2.0 at%), and clinoenstatite (up to 3.2 at%). Crystal structure refinements indicate that crystal field stabilization energy (CFSE) controls both cation ordering and transition metal partitioning in coexisting minerals. According to electron microprobe analyses, Ni and Co partition preferentially into forsterite and wadsleyite relative to coexisting clinoenstatite. Ni strongly prefers ringwoodite over coexisting wadsleyite with DRw/WdNi?=?4.13. Due to decreasing metal-oxygen distances with rising pressure, crystal field effect on distribution of divalent metal ions in magnesium silicates is more critical in the transition zone relative to the upper mantle. Analyses of Ni partitioning between the major upper-mantle phases implies that Ni-rich olivine in ultramafic rocks can be indicative of near-primary magmas.
Abstract: Flash laser heating in diamond anvil cells has been performed to melt diamond up to 37.5 GPa and 4500K using three different methods and three different starting materials: graphite, glassy carbon and diamond. In these experiments molten diamonds were confirmed by FIB/SEM images of the quenched samples. The melting slope of diamond is strongly negative, in contrast to all theoretical predictions. This is the first direct measurement of diamond melting temperatures at high pressure supporting early predictions based on analogies in the phase behavior of the group IV elements carbon, silicon and germanium. For diamond, these analogies had been dismissed for over 30 years based on theoretical grounds. The results imply that, at very high pressure, diamond, seemingly stable in all static and shock experiments, must be outside its thermodynamic stability field. This could be comparable to its behavior at ambient pressures, where diamond exhibits remarkable stability when heated to several thousand degrees even though the thermodynamically stable form of carbon is graphite.
Abstract: After travelling in Earth’s interior for up to billions of years, recycled material once injected at subduction zones can reach a subridge melting region as pyroxenite dispersed in the host peridotitic mantle. Here we study genetically related crustal basalts and mantle peridotites sampled along an uplifted lithospheric section created at a segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge through a time interval of 26 million years. The arrival of low-solidus material into the melting region forces the elemental and isotopic imprint of the residual peridotites and of the basalts to diverge with time. We show that a pyroxenite-bearing source entering the subridge melting region induces undercooling of the host peridotitic mantle, due to subtraction of latent heat by melting of the low-T-solidus pyroxenite. Mantle undercooling, in turn, lowers the thermal boundary layer, leading to a deeper cessation of melting. A consequence is to decrease the total amount of extracted melt, and hence the magmatic crustal thickness. The degree of melting undergone by a homogeneous peridotitic mantle is higher than the degree of melting of the same peridotite but veined by pyroxenites. This effect, thermodynamically predicted for a marble-cake-type peridotite–pyroxenite mixed source, implies incomplete homogenization of recycled material in the convective mantle.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078142
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Despite support from indirect observations, the existence of a layer of carbon?rich, partially molten rock (~60 km) below oceanic crust, made possible by the presence of CO2, remains uncertain. In particular, abrupt decreases in the velocity that seismic waves propagate at depths of 40-90 and 80-180 km beneath the ocean basins remain unexplained. In this study, we test whether these seismic discontinuities can be attributed to the presence of a layer of carbon?rich melt. Melt generation occurs only where the mantle is upwelling; thus, we predict the locations of carbonate?enhanced melting using a mantle convection model and compare the resulting melt distribution with the seismic observations. We find that the shallower seismic discontinuities (at 40? to 90?km depth) are not associated with regions of predicted melting but that the deeper discontinuities (80-180 km) occur preferentially in areas of greater mantle upwelling—suggesting that these deep observations may reflect the presence of localized melt accumulation at depth. Finally, we show that carbonate melting far from mid?ocean ridges produces an additional CO2 flux previously overlooked in deep carbon cycle estimates, roughly equivalent to the flux of CO2 due to seafloor volcanism.
Experimental investigation and peridotite oxybarometers: implications for spinel thermodynamic models and Fe3+ compatibility during generation of upper mantle melts.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 501, pp. 202-212.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: The viscosity of silicate melts is the most important physical property governing magma transport and eruption dynamics. This macroscopic property is controlled by composition and temperature but ultimately reflects the structural organization of the melt operating at the microscale. At present, there is no explicit relationship connecting viscosity to silicate melt structure and vice versa. Here, we use a single Raman spectroscopic parameter, indicative of melt structure, to accurately forecast the viscosity of natural, multicomponent silicate melts from spectroscopic measurements on glasses preserved on Earth and other planets. The Raman parameter is taken as the ratio of low and high frequency vibrational bands from the silicate glass by employing a green source laser wavelength of 514.5 nm (R514.5). Our model is based on an empirical linkage between R514.5 and coefficients in the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann function for the temperature dependence of melt viscosity. The calibration of the Raman-based model for melt viscosity is based on 413 high-temperature measurements of viscosity on 23 melt compositions for which published Raman spectra are available. The empirical model obviates the need for chemical measurement of glass compositions, thereby, providing new opportunities for tracking physical and thermochemical properties of melts during igneous processes (e.g., differentiation, mixing, assimilation). Furthermore, our model serves as a milepost for the future use of Raman spectral data for predicting transport (and calorimetric) properties of natural melts at geological conditions (e.g., volatiles and pressure) and production.
Rosenthal, A., Yaxley, G.M., Crichton, W.A., Kovacs, I.J., Spandler, C., Hermann, J., Sandorne, J.K., Rose-Koga, E., Pelleter, A-A.
Phase relations and melting of nominally 'dry' residual eclogites with variable CaO/Na2O from 3 to 5 Gpa and 1250 to 1500C; implications for refertilisation of upwelling heterogeneous mantle.
American Journal of Science, Vol. 318, 1, pp. 141-165.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Besides depth and temperature, CO2 and H2O, are the two most important variables in stabilizing partial melts in the Earth's mantle. However, despite decades of experimental studies on the roles of these two volatile species in affecting mantle melting, ambiguity remains in terms of the stability, composition, and proportion of volatile-bearing partial melts at depths. Furthermore, the difference in the influence of H2O versus CO2 in production of mantle melts is often inadequately discussed. Here I first discuss how as a function of depth and concentration of volatiles, the peridotite + H2O versus peridotite + CO2 near-solidus melting conditions differ - discussing specifically the concepts of saturation of volatile-bearing phases and how the mode of storage of ‘water’ and carbon affects the near solidus melting relations. This analysis shows that for the Earth's mantle beneath oceans and continents, deep, volatile-induced melting is influenced mostly by carbon, with water-bearing carbonated silicate melt being the key agent. A quantitative framework that uses the existing experimental data, allows calculation of the loci, extent of melting, and major element compositions of volatile-bearing partial melts beneath oceans and continents. How the domains of volatile-bearing melt stability are affected when possible oxygen fugacity variation at depths in the mantle is taken into account is also discussed. I show that trace amount hydrous carbonated silicate melt is likely stabilized at two or more distinct depths in the continental lithospheric mantle, at depths ranges similar to where mid-lithospheric discontinuity (MLD) and lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) have been estimated from seismology. Whereas beneath oceans, hydrous carbonated silicate melt likely remain continuously stable from the base of the thermal boundary layer to at least 200 km or deeper depending on the prevailing oxygen fugacity at depths. Hotter mantles, such as those beneath oceans, prevent sampling strongly silica-undersaturated, carbonated melts such as kimberlites as shallower basaltic melt generation dominates. Thick thermal boundary layers, such as those in cratonic regions, on the other hand allow production of kimberlitic to carbonatitic melt only. Therefore, the increasing frequency of occurrence of kimberlites starting at the Proterozoic may be causally linked to cooling and growth of sub-continental mantles through time.
Abstract: Earth’s oldest evolved (felsic) rocks, the 4.02-billion-year-old Idiwhaa gneisses of the Acasta Gneiss Complex, northwest Canada, have compositions that are distinct from the felsic rocks that typify Earth’s ancient continental nuclei, implying that they formed through a different process. Using phase equilibria and trace element modelling, we show that the Idiwhaa gneisses were produced by partial melting of iron-rich hydrated basaltic rocks (amphibolites) at very low pressures, equating to the uppermost ~3?km of a Hadean crust that was dominantly mafic in composition. The heat required for partial melting at such shallow levels is most easily explained through meteorite impacts. Hydrodynamic impact modelling shows not only that this scenario is physically plausible, but also that the region of shallow partial melting appropriate to formation of the Idiwhaa gneisses would have been widespread. Given the predicted high flux of meteorites in the late Hadean, impact melting may have been the predominant mechanism that generated Hadean felsic rocks.
Abstract: Subduction zone magmas are more oxidised on eruption than those at mid-ocean ridges. This is attributed either to oxidising components, derived from subducted lithosphere (slab) and added to the mantle wedge, or to oxidation processes occurring during magma ascent via differentiation. Here we provide direct evidence for contributions of oxidising slab agents to melts trapped in the sub-arc mantle. Measurements of sulfur (S) valence state in sub-arc mantle peridotites identify sulfate, both as crystalline anhydrite (CaSO4) and dissolved SO42? in spinel-hosted glass (formerly melt) inclusions. Copper-rich sulfide precipitates in the inclusions and increased Fe3+/?Fe in spinel record a S6+Fe2+ redox coupling during melt percolation through the sub-arc mantle. Sulfate-rich glass inclusions exhibit high U/Th, Pb/Ce, Sr/Nd and ?34S (+?7 to +?11‰), indicating the involvement of dehydration products of serpentinised slab rocks in their parental melt sources. These observations provide a link between liberated slab components and oxidised arc magmas.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 501, pp. 202-212.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: The viscosity of silicate melts is the most important physical property governing magma transport and eruption dynamics. This macroscopic property is controlled by composition and temperature but ultimately reflects the structural organization of the melt operating at the microscale. At present, there is no explicit relationship connecting viscosity to silicate melt structure and vice versa. Here, we use a single Raman spectroscopic parameter, indicative of melt structure, to accurately forecast the viscosity of natural, multicomponent silicate melts from spectroscopic measurements on glasses preserved on Earth and other planets. The Raman parameter is taken as the ratio of low and high frequency vibrational bands from the silicate glass by employing a green source laser wavelength of 514.5 nm (R514.5). Our model is based on an empirical linkage between R514.5 and coefficients in the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann function for the temperature dependence of melt viscosity. The calibration of the Raman-based model for melt viscosity is based on 413 high-temperature measurements of viscosity on 23 melt compositions for which published Raman spectra are available. The empirical model obviates the need for chemical measurement of glass compositions, thereby, providing new opportunities for tracking physical and thermochemical properties of melts during igneous processes (e.g., differentiation, mixing, assimilation). Furthermore, our model serves as a milepost for the future use of Raman spectral data for predicting transport (and calorimetric) properties of natural melts at geological conditions (e.g., volatiles and pressure) and production.
Journal of Metamorphic Geology, doi.org/10.1111/jmg.12465
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Partial melting of continental crust and evolution of granitic magmas are inseparably linked to the availability of H2O. In the absence of a free aqueous fluid, melting takes place at relatively high temperatures by dehydration of hydrous minerals, whereas in its presence, melting temperatures are lowered, and melting need not involve hydrous minerals. With the exception of anatexis in water?saturated environments where anhydrous peritectic minerals are absent, there is no reliable indicator that clearly identifies the presence of a free aqueous fluid during anatexis. Production of Ab?rich magmas or changes in LILE ratios, such as an increase in Sr and decrease in Rb indicating increased involvement of plagioclase, are rough guidelines to the presence of aqueous fluids. Nevertheless, all of them have caveats and cannot be unequivocally applied, allowing for the persistence of a bias in the literature towards dehydration melting. Investigation of mineral equilibria modelling of three metasedimentary protoliths of the Kangaroo Island migmatites in South Australia, shows that the main indicator for the presence of small volumes of excess water under upper amphibolite to lower granulite facies conditions (660?750°C) is the melt volume produced. Melt composition, modal content or chemical composition of peritectic minerals such as cordierite, sillimanite or garnet are relatively insensitive to the presence of free water. However, the mobility of melt during open system behaviour makes it difficult to determine the melt volume produced. We therefore argue that the presence of small volumes of excess water might be much more common than so far inferred, with large impact on the buffering of crustal temperatures and fertility, and therefore rheology of the continental crust.
Abstract: Archean tectonics was capable of producing virtually indestructible cratonic mantle lithosphere, but the dominant mechanism of this process remains a topic of considerable discussion. Recent geophysical and petrological studies have refuelled the debate by suggesting that thickening and associated vertical movement of the cratonic mantle lithosphere after its formation are essential ingredients of the cratonization process. Here we present a geodynamical study that focuses on how the thick stable cratonic lithospheric roots can be made in a thermally evolving mantle. Our numerical experiments explore the viability of a cratonization process in which depleted mantle lithosphere grows via lateral compression into a > 200-km thick, stable cratonic root and on what timescales this may happen. Successful scenarios for craton formation, within the bounds of our models, are found to be composed of two stages: an initial phase of tectonic shortening and a later phase of gravitational self-thickening. The initial tectonic shortening of previously depleted mantle material is essential to initiate the cratonization process, while the subsequent gravitational self-thickening contributes to a second thickening phase that is comparable in magnitude to the initial tectonic phase. Our results show that a combination of intrinsic compositional buoyancy of the cratonic root, rapid cooling of the root after shortening, and the long-term secular cooling of the mantle prevents a Rayleigh-Taylor type collapse, and will stabilize the thick cratonic root for future preservation. This two-stage thickening model provides a geodynamically viable cratonization scenario that is consistent with petrological and geophysical constraints.
Doklady earth Sciences, Vol. 483, 1, pp. 1473-1474.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: The experimental data on diamond growth in the Fe-Ni-S-C and Fe-S-C systems with a sulfur content of 5-14 wt % at 5.5 GPa and 1300-1350°C are reported. Colorless and light yellow diamond crystals with a weight of 0.1-0.8 ct were synthesized. It is shown in the Fe-S-C system that at 5.5. GPa diamond may crystallize in a very narrow temperature range, from 1300 to 1370°C. Based on comparative analysis of the experimental data and the results of the study of native iron inclusions in natural diamonds from kimberlite pipes, it is suggested that diamond genesis may be partly controlled by the pre-eutectic (by the concentration of sulfur in relation to metal) metal-sulfide melt.
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Vol. 19, 12, pp. 4694-4721.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Basaltic lavas, created by melting the convecting mantle, show variability of concentration of trace element that are correlated with their affinity for the liquid phase during melting. The observed variability in lavas and melt inclusions carries information about heterogeneity in the mantle. The difficulty is to disentangle the contributions of source heterogeneity (i.e., spatial variability of mantle composition before melting) and process heterogeneity (i.e., spatial and temporal variability in melt transport). Here we develop an end?member model of the source heterogeneity and show that it is inadequate to explain observations.
Abstract: Extensive partial melting of the middle to lower crustal parts of orogens, such as of the current Himalaya-Tibet orogen, significantly alters their rheology and imposes first-order control on their tectonic and topographic evolution. We interpret the late Proterozoic Araçuaí orogen, formed by the collision between the São Francisco (Brazil) and Congo (Africa) cratons, as a deep section through such a hot orogen based on U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) zircon ages and Ti-in-zircon and Zr-in-rutile temperatures from the Carlos Chagas anatectic domain. This domain is composed of peraluminous anatexites and leucogranites that typically exhibit interconnected networks of garnet-rich leucosomes or a magmatic foliation. Zirconium-in-rutile temperatures range from 745 to 820 °C, and the average Ti-in-zircon temperature ranges from 712 to 737 °C. The geochronologic and thermometry data suggest that from 597 to 572 Ma this domain was partially molten and remained so for at least 25 m.y., slowly crystallizing between temperatures of ?815 and >700 °C. Significant crustal thickening must have occurred prior to 600 Ma, with initial continental collision likely before 620 Ma, a time period long enough to heat the crust to temperatures required for widespread partial melting at middle crustal levels and to favor a "channel flow" tectonic behavior.
Abstract: A magnetotelluric survey in the Barotse Basin of western Zambia shows clear evidence for thinned lithosphere beneath an orogenic belt. The uppermost asthenosphere, at a depth of 60-70 km, is highly conductive, suggestive of the presence of a small amount of partial melt, despite the fact that there is no surface expression of volcanism in the region. Although the data support the presence of thicker cratonic lithosphere to the southeast of the basin, the lithospheric thickness is not well resolved and models show variations ranging from ~80 to 150 km in this region. Similarly variable is the conductivity of the mantle beneath the basin and immediately beneath the cratonic lithosphere to the southeast, although the conductivity is required to be elevated compared to normal lithospheric mantle. In a general sense, two classes of model are compatible with the magnetotelluric data: one with a moderately conductive mantle and one with more elevated conductivities. This latter class would be consistent with the impingement of a stringer of plume?fed melt beneath the cratonic lithosphere, with the melt migrating upslope to thermally erode lithosphere beneath the orogenic belt that is overlain by the Barotse Basin. Such processes are potentially important for intraplate volcanism and also for development or propagation of rifting as lithosphere is thinned and weakened by melt. Both models show clear evidence for thinning of the lithosphere beneath the orogenic belt, consistent with elevated heat flow data in the region.
Abstract: Hibonite (CaAl12O19) is a constituent of some refractory calcium-aluminum inclusions (CAIs) in carbonaceous meteorites, commonly accompanied by grossite (CaAl4O7) and spinel. These phases are usually interpreted as having condensed, or crystallized from silicate melts, early in the evolution of the solar nebula. Both Ca-Al oxides are commonly found on Earth, but as products of high-temperature metamorphism of pelitic carbonate rocks. We report here a unique occurrence of magmatic hibonitegrossite-spinel assemblages, crystallized from Ca-Al-rich silicate melts under conditions [high-temperature, very low oxygen fugacity (fO2)] comparable to those of their meteoritic counterparts. Ejecta from Cretaceous pyroclastic deposits on Mt Carmel, N. Israel, include aggregates of hopper/skeletal Ti-rich corundum, which have trapped melts that crystallized at fO2 extending from 7 log units below the iron-wustite buffer (?IW = -7; SiC, Ti2O3, Fe-Ti silicide melts) to ?IW ? -9 (native V, TiC, and TiN). The assemblage hibonite + grossite + spinel + TiN first crystallized late in the evolution of the melt pockets; this hibonite contains percentage levels of Zr, Ti, and REE that reflect the concentration of incompatible elements in the residual melts as corundum continued to crystallize. A still later stage appears to be represented by coarse-grained (centimeter-size crystals) ejecta that show the crystallization sequence: corundum + Liq ? (low-REE) hibonite ? grossite + spinel ± krotite ? Ca4Al6F2O12 + fluorite. V0 appears as spheroidal droplets, with balls up to millimeter size and spectacular dendritic intergrowths, included in hibonite, grossite, and spinel. Texturally late V0 averages 12 wt% Al and 2 wt% Mn. Spinels contain 10-16 wt% V in V0-free samples, and <0.5 wt% V in samples with abundant V 0. Ongoing paragenetic studies suggest that the fO2 evolution of the Mt Carmel magmatic system reflects the interaction between OIB-type mafic magmas and mantle-derived CH4+H2 fluids near the crust-mantle boundary. Temperatures estimated by comparison with 1 atm phase-equilibrium studies range from ca. 1500 °C down to 1200-1150 °C. When fO2 reached ca. ?IW = -7, the immiscible segregation of Fe,Ti-silicide melts and the crystallization of SiC and TiC effectively desilicated the magma, leading to supersaturation in Al2O3 and the rapid crystallization of corundum, preceding the development of the hibonite-bearing assemblages. Reports of Ti-rich corundum and SiC from other areas of explosive volcanism suggest that these phenomena may be more widespread than presently realized, and the hibonite-grossite assemblage may serve as another indicator to track such activity. This is the first reported terrestrial occurrence of krotite (CaAl2O4), and of at least two unknown Zr-Ti oxides.
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, 4, pp. 2037-2044.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Silicate melting is a major agent of thermal and chemical evolution of the Earth and other rocky planets. The melting temperature of Calcium silicate perovskite, a mineral that exists in Earth's lower mantle, is unknown over most of the pressure range that occurs in the mantle of Earth and super?Earth exoplanets. We use advanced quantum mechanical simulations to predict the melting temperature of this material. We find that the melting temperature increases with increasing pressure but at a rate that diminishes continuously. The liquid and crystal have very similar volumes in the deep portions of planetary mantles, supporting the view that crystals may float at great depth.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, in press available, 32p.
Asia, Tibet, Andes
melting
Abstract: The lithospheric mantle beneath Archean cratons is conspicuously refractory and thick compared to younger continental lithosphere (Jordan, 1988, Boyd, 1989; Lee and Chin, 2014), but how such thick lithospheres formed is unclear. Using a large global geochemical database of Archean igneous crustal rocks overlying these thick cratonic roots, we show from Gd/Yb- and MnO/FeOT-SiO2 trends that crustal differentiation required continuous garnet fractionation. Today, these signatures are only found where crust is anomalously thick (60-70?km), as in the Northern and Central Andes and Southern Tibet. The widespread garnet signature in Archean igneous suites suggests that thickening occurred not only in the lithospheric mantle but also in the crust during continent formation in the late Archean. Building thick crust requires tectonic thickening or magmatic inflation rates that can compete against gravitational collapse through lower crustal flow, which would have been enhanced in the Archean when geotherms were hotter and crustal rocks weaker. We propose that Archean crust and mantle lithosphere formed by thickening over mantle downwelling sites with minimum strain rates on the order of 10?13-10?12 s?1, requiring mantle flow rates associated with late Archean crust formation to be 10-100 times faster than today.
Abstract: Harzburgites with high modal orthopyroxene (generally >23?vol%) in Archean craton, mantle wedge and oceanic lithospheric mantle are considered to be produced by the interaction between Si-rich liquids and rocks. However, the absence of samples from continental margin hinders the recognition whether this process is prevalent. Mantle xenoliths entrained in Miocene basalts from the Thrace Basin, the margin of Eurasian continent, are dominated by harzburgites with anomalously high orthopyroxene modes. These orthopyroxene grains closely associate with spinel and occasionally with clinopyroxene. In these orthopyroxene-spinel associations, orthopyroxene grains can be up to 1?cm in diameter and display high Al2O3 contents (1.41-4.61?wt%) and Mg# values (89.6-92.4), while spinel crystals are anhedral and bud-shaped and are commonly foliated, with a wide variation in Cr# values ranging from 7.8 to 52.7. The Fe2+/Fe3+ vs. TiO2 diagram shows lots of these spinels are “magmatic” (i.e. spinel crystallized from melts). The orthopyroxene grains have LREE diverging from the modelled melting trends, indicating possible metasomatism following partial melting. They are present in elongated shape, cutting across olivine grains and also replacing olivine as surrounding rims. Fine-grained olivine is occasionally enclosed in the orthopyroxene-spinel association. We, therefore, propose that the association of orthopyroxene and spinel developed from the melt/fluid-rock interaction. These features indicate mineral phase transformation from olivine to orthopyroxene, which can be expressed by the equation: ‘Mg2SiO4 (Ol)?+?SiO2?=?Mg2Si2O6 (Opx)’. The observed Al-rich rim of spinel and bud-shaped Al-spinel, suggest sufficient amount of Al in the Si-rich liquids. The mechanism involved here is the consumption of olivine to produce orthopyroxene and spinel as in the equation: ‘Mg2SiO4 (Ol)?+?Al2O3?=?MgSiO3 (Opx)?+?MgAl2O4 (Sp)’. The Si and Al were enriched in the percolating liquids. Both the high-Cr# and low-Cr# spinels with ‘magmatic’ features imply the percolating liquids were multi-staged or inhomogeneous Cr contents in the liquids. This melt/fluid-rock interaction may account for the formation of abundant harzburgites with high orthopyroxene modes in the Eurasian continental margin. Thus, it indicates the reacting harzburgites are prevalent in the lithospheric mantle beneath oceanic crust, Archean craton and mantle wedge, as well as in the continental margin.
Journal of Geophysical Research , Vol. 124, 5, pp. 4617-4638.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: The oxidation state of the Earth`s mantle, often expressed as oxygen fugacity (fO2), could control the behavior of multivalent elements and thus exert a significant influence on the formation of magmatic ore deposits and the secular evolution of Earth`s atmosphere. Whether arc mantle is more oxidized than oceanic mantle remains a controversial topic. As a multivalent element, partitioning behavior of vanadium is fO2 sensitive and is capable of tracking mantle redox state. However, except fO2, other factors (temperature, pressure, and phase composition) that may affect vanadium partitioning behavior have not been clearly evaluated. Here we conducted high temperature and pressure experiments to determine partition coefficients of vanadium during mantle melting under various fO2 conditions. Combining our and published data, we evaluated the effects of fO2, T, P, and compositions of mineral and melt on the vanadium partitioning using multiple linear regressions. The results indicate that, in addition to fO2, temperature exerts a significant control on the vanadium partitioning. Additionally, we estimated fO2 of the arc mantle via numerical modelling using appropriate partition coefficients for vanadium. Our results clarify and reconcile the discrepancies between previous studies and reveal that arc mantle is generally ~10 times more oxidized than oceanic mantle.
Abstract: Variations of the structure and composition of mantle terranes in the terminology of the Siberian craton were studied using database (>60000) EPMA of kimberlite xenocrysts from the pipes of Yakutian kimberlite province (YKP) by a team of investigators from IGM, IGH, IEC and IGBM SB RAS and ALROSA company. The monomineral thermobarometry (Ashchepkov et al., 2010, 2014, 2017) Geochemistry of minerals obtained LA ICP MS was used to determine the protolith, melting degree, Type of the metasomatism . The mantle stratification commonly was formed by 6-7 paleosubduction slabs, separated by pyroxenite, eclogite, and metasomatic horizons and dunite lenses beneath kemberltes . We built mantle sections across the kimberlite field and transects of craton. Within the established tectonic terrains strengthening to thousands km (Gladkochub et al, 2006), the collage of microplates was determined at the mantle level. Under the shields of Anabar and Aldan lower SCLM consist of 3 -4 dunites dunites with Gar-Px-Ilm- Phl nests. Terranes framing protocratons like suture Khapchanskyare are saturated in eclogites and pyroxenites, sometimes dominated probably represent the ascending bodies of igneous eclogites intruding mantle lithosphere (ML). The ubiquitous pyroxenite layer at the level of 3.5-4.5 GPa originated in the early Archaean when melted eclogites stoped stoped subdction. Beneath the Early Archaean granite-greenstone terranes - Tunguskaya, Markhinskaya, Birektinskaya, Shary-Zhalgaiskaya (age to~3.8-3.0 GA) (Gladkochub et al., 2018) the SCLM is less depleted and often metasomatized having flat structures in some subterrains. Daldyn and Magan granulite-orthogneisic terranes have a layered and folded ML seen in N-S sections from Udachnaya to Krasnopresnenskaya less pronounced in latitudinal direction. From Daldyn to Alakit field increases the degree of Phl metasomatism and Cpx alkalinity. The most productive Aykhal and Yubleynaya pipes confined to the dunite core. Within the Magan terrane, the thin-layered SCLM have depleted base horizon. Granite-greenstone Markha terrane contains pelitic eclogites. Central and Northern craton parts show slight inclination of paleoslabs to West. The formation of SCLM in Hadean accompanied by submelting (Perchuk et al., 2018, Gerya, 2014.) had no deep roots. Ultrafine craton nuclei like Anabar shield was framed by steeper slab. During 3.8-3.0 GA craton keel growth in superplume periods (Condie, 2004) when melted eclogites and peridotites acquiring buoyancy of the sinking plate melted. For peridotites, the melting lines calculated from the experimental data (Herzberg, 2004) mainly lie near 5-6 GPA (Ionov et al., 2010; 2015). In classical works all geotherms are conductive (Boyd, 1973), but this is quite rare. The garnet pyroxene geotherms for (Ashchepkov et al., 2017) calculated with most reliable methods (Nimis, Taylor, 2000; McGregor , 1974; Brey Kohler, Nickel Green, 1985; Ashchepkov et al., 2010; 2017) give are sub-adiabatic and are formed during the melt percolation superplume vent often in presence of volatiles (Wyllie, Ryabchikov, 2000) and therefore, after superplumes trends P-Fe# of garnet are smoothed and change the tilts.
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Vol. 20, 7, pp. 3328-3346.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Plate tectonics occurs because the strong tectonic plates sit on underlying weaker and softer mantle that flows over geological timescales. We do not fully understand why this deeper mantle is weak—the two main contenders are that a small part of it is molten or that it contains nominal amounts of the element hydrogen. The electrical conductivity of the mantle is increased both by the presence of molten rock and by hydrogen, so when we interpret conductivity data, it is difficult to distinguish between these two interpretations. We have written a new code to help this. It analyzes whether the conductivity of the mantle could only be explained by the presence of molten rock, whether it could only be explained by large hydrogen contents, or whether it could be explained by either. Our results show that the distribution of partially molten rock is very uneven: Most lies beneath hot spot volcanic islands, while there is no need for molten rock to be present beneath old continents or old parts of the ocean. Beneath young parts of the ocean, the electrical conductivities could be explained by either a small amount of molten rock or by large hydrogen contents.
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, 14, pp. 8000-8008.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: We use a set of seismic observations recorded globally to investigate the lower mantle beneath Central America. The deepest mantle in this region has been associated with the final resting place of subducted slab material from subduction that initiated approximately 200 million years ago. This ancient subducted material is associated with high seismic wave speeds in the lowermost mantle just above the core?mantle boundary. We find that patches of highly reduced seismic wave speeds, referred to as ultralow?velocity zones (ULVZs), appear to be associated with the border of the high wave speed region, along the border of the subducted slab material. These ULVZ patches are consistent with being regions of partial melt. A possible scenario for their creation is that mid?ocean ridge basalt (MORB), comprising the crust of the subducted slab material, has a low melting point at conditions in the deep earth and may be melting as the slabs reach the bottom of the mantle. Previous experimental work has suggested that MORB will likely partially melt in the deep mantle, yet little evidence for the existence of MORB partial melt has previously been found.
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, doi.org/ 10.1029/ 2019GL083633
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Planetary?scale melting is ubiquitous after energetic impacts early in Earth's history. Therefore, determining key melt properties, such as density, is of great significance to better understand Earth's formation and subsequent evolution. In this study, we performed state?of?art first?principles molecular dynamics simulations to examine the density of deep mantle melts, namely, hydrous Fe?rich silicate melts. We find that such hydrous melts can be gravitationally stable near Earth's core?mantle boundary given their likely high iron content. This has great implications for Earth's thermochemical evolution, as well as Earth's volatile cycle.
Abstract: The widely accepted paradigm of Earth's geochemical evolution states that the successive extraction of melts from the mantle over the past 4.5 billion years formed the continental crust, and produced at least one complementary melt-depleted reservoir that is now recognized as the upper-mantle source of mid-ocean-ridge basalts1. However, geochemical modelling and the occurrence of high 3He/4He (that is, primordial) signatures in some volcanic rocks suggest that volumes of relatively undifferentiated mantle may reside in deeper, isolated regions2. Some basalts from large igneous provinces may provide temporally restricted glimpses of the most primitive parts of the mantle3,4, but key questions regarding the longevity of such sources on planetary timescales—and whether any survive today—remain unresolved. Kimberlites, small-volume volcanic rocks that are the source of most diamonds, offer rare insights into aspects of the composition of the Earth’s deep mantle. The radiogenic isotope ratios of kimberlites of different ages enable us to map the evolution of this domain through time. Here we show that globally distributed kimberlites originate from a single homogeneous reservoir with an isotopic composition that is indicative of a uniform and pristine mantle source, which evolved in isolation over at least 2.5 billion years of Earth history—to our knowledge, the only such reservoir that has been identified to date. Around 200 million years ago, extensive volumes of the same source were perturbed, probably as a result of contamination by exogenic material. The distribution of affected kimberlites suggests that this event may be related to subduction along the margin of the Pangaea supercontinent. These results reveal a long-lived and globally extensive mantle reservoir that underwent subsequent disruption, possibly heralding a marked change to large-scale mantle-mixing regimes. These processes may explain why uncontaminated primordial mantle is so difficult to identify in recent mantle-derived melts.
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 174, 22p. Pdf
Mantle
subduction, melting
Abstract: To investigate the first melts of the mantle wedge in subduction zones and their relationship to primitive magmas erupted at arcs, the compositions of low degree melts of hydrous garnet lherzolite have been experimentally determined at 3.2 GPa over the temperature range of 925-1150 °C. Two starting compositions with variable H2O contents were studied; a subduction-enriched peridotite containing 0.61% Na2O, 0.16 K2O% (wt%) with 4.2 wt% H2O added (Mitchell and Grove in Contrib Mineral Petrol 170:13, 2015) and an undepleted mantle peridotite (Hart and Zindler in Chem Geol 57:247-267, 1986) with 14.5% H2O added (Till et al. in Contrib Mineral Petrol 163:669-688, 2012). Saturating phases include olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, garnet and rutile. Melting extent is tracked from near solidus (~?5 wt%) to 25 wt%, which is close to or beyond the point where clinopyroxene and garnet are exhausted. The beginning of melting is a peritectic reaction where 0.54 orthopyroxene?+?0.17 clinopyroxene?+?0.13 garnet react to produce 1.0 liquid?+?0.88 olivine. The melt production rate near the solidus is 0.1 wt% °C?1 and increases to 0.3 wt% °C?1 over the experimentally studied interval. These values are significantly lower than that observed for anhydrous lherzolite (~?1 wt% °C?1). When melting through this reaction is calculated for a metasomatized lherzolite source, the rare earth element characteristics of the melt are similar to melts of an eclogite, as well as those observed in many subduction zone magmas. Moreover, since rutile is stable up to?~?8 wt% melting, the first melts of a hydrous lherzolite source could also show strong high field strength element depletions as is observed in many subduction zone lavas. The silicate melts measured at the lowest temperatures and melting extents (10 wt%) are high silica andesites (56-60 wt% SiO2) and contain very low Ca/Al and high alkalis. These deep low degree andesitic melts, if added to experimentally produced hydrous liquids from melting (20-25 wt%) of harzburgite residues at shallow pressures (1.0-1.2 GPa, Mitchell and Grove in Contrib Mineral Petrol 170:13, 2015), can match the compositional characteristics of primitive natural basaltic andesite and magnesian andesite lavas found globally in arcs. In addition to a silicate melt phase, there is a small amount of silicate dissolved in the H2O supercritical fluid that coexists with the silicate liquid and solids in our experiments. The composition of this fluid is in equilibrium with the Mg-rich minerals and it is granitic. The results presented here are used to develop a model for producing hydrous arc magmas. We hypothesize that mantle wedge melting produced by the flux of hydrous fluid from the slab occurs over a range of depths that begins at the base of the mantle wedge and ends at shallow mantle depths. These melts ascend and remain isolated until they mix in the shallow, hottest part of the mantle wedge. In this melting scenario, the metasomatic “slab melt” contributions to arc magmas is small (~?5 wt%), but its effect on the alkali, REE and incompatible trace element budget of the derivative magmas is large and able to reproduce the trace elemental characteristics of the primitive andesites. Higher proportions of slab or sediment melt do not resemble primitive high magnesian arc andesites and basaltic andesites.
Abstract: The exchange of volatile species—water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and halogens—between the mantle and the surface of the Earth has been a key driver of environmental changes throughout Earth’s history. Degassing of the mantle requires partial melting and is therefore linked to mantle convection, whose regime and vigour in the Earth’s distant past remain poorly constrained1,2. Here we present direct geochemical constraints on the flux of volatiles from the mantle. Atmospheric xenon has a monoisotopic excess of 129Xe, produced by the decay of extinct 129I. This excess was mainly acquired during Earth’s formation and early evolution3, but mantle degassing has also contributed 129Xe to the atmosphere through geological time. Atmospheric xenon trapped in samples from the Archaean eon shows a slight depletion of 129Xe relative to the modern composition4,5, which tends to disappear in more recent samples5,6. To reconcile this deficit in the Archaean atmosphere by mantle degassing would require the degassing rate of Earth at the end of the Archaean to be at least one order of magnitude higher than today. We demonstrate that such an intense activity could not have occurred within a plate tectonics regime. The most likely scenario is a relatively short (about 300 million years) burst of mantle activity at the end of the Archaean (around 2.5 billion years ago). This lends credence to models advocating a magmatic origin for drastic environmental changes during the Neoarchaean era, such as the Great Oxidation Event.
Abstract: We performed melting experiments on Fe-O alloys up to 204 GPa and 3500 K in a diamond-anvil cell (DAC) and determined the liquidus phase relations in the Fe-FeO system based on textural and chemical characterizations of recovered samples. Liquid-liquid immiscibility was observed up to 29 GPa. Oxygen concentration in eutectic liquid increased from >8 wt% O at 44 GPa to 13 wt% at 204 GPa and is extrapolated to be about 15 wt% at the inner core boundary (ICB) conditions. These results support O-rich liquid core, although oxygen cannot be a single core light element. We estimated the range of possible liquid core compositions in Fe-O-Si-C-S and found that the upper bounds for silicon and carbon concentrations are constrained by the crystallization of dense inner core at the ICB.
Geocimica et Cosmochimica Acta , Vol. 260, pp. 29-48.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Carbon content in the Earth's depleted upper mantle has been estimated in previous studies using CO2/Ba ratios of CO2 undersaturated depleted mid-ocean ridge basalt (D-MORB) glasses and melt inclusions. However, CO2/Ba ratios in CO2 undersaturated MORB may not necessarily record those of the mantle source, as they may be affected by (1) assimilation of Ba-rich plagioclase-bearing rocks in the oceanic crust and (2) CO2 degassing through partial degassing and mixing. In this study, we evaluate these effects on the CO2/Ba ratios as well as other volatile to refractory trace element ratios (H2O/Ce, F/Nd, Cl/K, and S/Dy) in D-MORBs using the compositions of olivine-hosted melt inclusions and glasses from the Siqueiros and Garrett transform faults. The Siqueiros and Garrett melt inclusions are CO2 undersaturated and highly depleted in incompatible trace elements, and their average CO2/Ba ratios show relatively large ranges of 90?±?34 and 144?±?53 respectively. A subset of melt inclusions in lavas from both transform faults show potential signatures of contamination by plagioclase-rich rocks, such as correlations between major elements contents (e.g., FeO, Al2O3, and MgO), and trace element ratios (e.g., Sr/Nd). We find that (1) assimilation fractional crystallization (AFC) of gabbro into D-MORB and (2) mixing between partial melts of gabbro and D-MORB can reproduce the observed range in Sr/Nd ratios as well as the general trends between major elements. However, we find that these processes had limited effects on the CO2/Ba ratio of the melt inclusions and it is unlikely that they can account for the observed range in the CO2/Ba ratio. On the other hand, while a partial degassing and mixing model can generate melts with large range of CO2/Ba ratios (as proposed by Matthews et al. (2017)), it cannot reproduce the Pearson correlation coefficients between CO2/trace element and 1/trace element ratios observed in the Siqueiros and Garrett melt inclusions. Instead, when analytical uncertainties on the elemental concentrations are considered, a model without partial degassing can adequately reproduce the majority of the observed range in CO2/Ba ratio and Pearson correlation coefficients. Hence, we postulate that the Siqueiros and Garrett melt inclusions are undegassed and use their average CO2/Ba ratios to estimate the Siqueiros and Garrett mantle source CO2 contents (21?±?2?ppm and 33?±?6?ppm respectively). We also evaluate the effects of shallow level crustal processes on H2O/Ce, F/Nd, Cl/K, and S/Dy ratios, and after which we filter those effects, we estimate the H2O, F, Cl and S contents in the mantle sources of the Siqueiros (40?±?8?ppm, 8?±?1?ppm, 0.22?±?0.04?ppm, and 113?±?3?ppm) and Garrett (51?±?9?ppm, 6?±?1?ppm, 0.27?±?0.07?ppm, and 128?±?7?ppm) melt inclusions.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 270, pp. 95-111.
China, Russia
metasomatism, melting
Abstract: The eastern part of Asia between the North China and Siberian cratons contains orogenic belts formed by the Paleo-Asian and Pacific subduction and older continental blocks. A fundamental question regarding these and all mobile belts is the fate of the continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) during their formation, i.e. whether, or to what extent the CLM may be formed, replaced or affected during orogeny. Insights into these processes can be obtained from mantle xenoliths hosted by Cenozoic basalts in the Proterozoic Khanka block in the far eastern Russia between NE China and the Pacific coast of Asia. We report petrographic, chemical, and Os-Sr-Nd isotope data for spinel peridotite xenoliths at two Khanka sites: Sviyagin and Podgelban. The modal abundances and chemical compositions suggest that the peridotites are residues of low to moderate degrees of melt extraction from fertile mantle. They show an 187Os/188Os vs. 187Re/188Os correlation with an apparent 1.9?Ga age; the 187Os/188Os ratios are positively correlated with Al2O3 and other melt extraction indices. These results provide the first robust CLM age constraints for the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). The ages suggest that the ancient CLM of the Khanka block may be roughly coeval with reworked CLM at Hannuoba (North China craton), and that it persisted through the Phanerozoic orogenies. Moreover, despite the proximity to Phanerozoic subduction zones, the Khanka CLM shows little post-melting enrichment, e.g. the clinopyroxenes are typically LREE-depleted and have Sr-Nd isotope ratios typical of the MORB mantle. We posit that the metasomatism of the CLM, earlier proposed for North China xenolith suites and ascribed to the effects of Pacific or older subduction and related mantle upwelling, may not be widespread in the CAOB. In general, Proterozoic blocks composed of residual peridotites may be more common in the CLM of the SE Siberia and northern China, and possibly other orogenic belts, than previously thought.
Nature Communications, doi.org/10.1038/ s41467-019-11750-4 7p. pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Determining whether magma fragments during eruption remains a seminal challenge in volcanology. There is a robust paradigm for fragmentation of high viscosity, silicic magmas, however little is known about the fragmentation behaviour of lower viscosity systems—the most abundant form of volcanism on Earth and on other planetary bodies and satellites. Here we provide a quantitative model, based on experiments, for the non-brittle, fluid dynamic induced fragmentation of low viscosity melts. We define the conditions under which extensional thinning or liquid break-up can be expected. We show that break-up, both in our experiments and natural eruptions, occurs by both viscous and capillary instabilities operating on contrasting timescales. These timescales are used to produce a universal break-up criterion valid for low viscosity melts such as basalt, kimberlite and carbonatite. Lastly, we relate these break-up instabilities to changes in eruptive behaviour, the associated natural hazard and ultimately the deposits formed.
Abstract: Much of the present-day volume of Earth’s continental crust had formed by the end of the Archean Eon, 2.5 billion years ago, through the conversion of basaltic (mafic) crust into sodic granite of tonalite, trondhjemite and granodiorite (TTG) composition. Distinctive chemical signatures in a small proportion of these rocks, the so-called high-pressure TTG, are interpreted to indicate partial melting of hydrated crust at pressures above 1.5?GPa (>50?km depth), pressures typically not reached in post-Archean continental crust. These interpretations significantly influence views on early crustal evolution and the onset of plate tectonics. Here we show that high-pressure TTG did not form through melting of crust, but through fractionation of melts derived from metasomatically enriched lithospheric mantle. Although the remaining, and dominant, group of Archean TTG did form through melting of hydrated mafic crust, there is no evidence that this occurred at depths significantly greater than the ~40?km average thickness of modern continental crust.
IN: Deep Carbon: past to present. Editors Orcutt, Danielle, Dasgupta, pp. 129-162.
Mantle
melting
Abstract: This chapter reviews the systematics of partial melting of mantle lithologies - like peridotite and eclogite - in the presence of carbon dioxide. It discusses the composition of mantle-derived magmas generated in the presence of carbon dioxide and whether magmas erupted on Earth’s surface resemble carbonated magmas from the mantle. It reviews how the production of carbon dioxide-rich magma in the mantle varies as a function of tectonic settings - beneath continents and oceans and in subduction zones - and time.
Nature Research Scientific Reports, https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41598-019-55743-1 11p. Pdf
Mantle
melting, redox
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Oxygen fugacity (fO2) is an intensive variable implicated in a range of processes that have shaped the Earth system, but there is controversy on the timing and rate of oxidation of the uppermost convecting mantle to its present fO2 around the fayalite-magnetite-quartz oxygen buffer. Here, we report Fe3+/?Fe and ƒf2 for ancient eclogite xenoliths with oceanic crustal protoliths that sampled the coeval ambient convecting mantle. Using new and published data, we demonstrate that in these eclogites, two redox proxies, V/Sc and Fe3+/?Fe, behave sympathetically, despite different responses of their protoliths to differentiation and post-formation degassing, seawater alteration, devolatilisation and partial melting, testifying to an unexpected robustness of Fe3+/?Fe. Therefore, these processes, while causing significant scatter, did not completely obliterate the underlying convecting mantle signal. Considering only unmetasomatised samples with non-cumulate and little-differentiated protoliths, V/Sc and Fe3+/?Fe in two Archaean eclogite suites are significantly lower than those of modern mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB), while a third suite has ratios similar to modern MORB, indicating redox heterogeneity. Another major finding is the predominantly low though variable estimated fO2 of eclogite at mantle depths, which does not permit stabilisation of CO2-dominated fluids or pure carbonatite melts. Conversely, low-fO2 eclogite may have caused efficient reduction of CO2 in fluids and melts generated in other portions of ancient subducting slabs, consistent with eclogitic diamond formation ages, the disproportionate frequency of eclogitic diamonds relative to the subordinate abundance of eclogite in the mantle lithosphere and the general absence of carbonate in mantle eclogite. This indicates carbon recycling at least to depths of diamond stability and may have represented a significant pathway for carbon ingassing through time.
Abstract: Raman spectroscopy is a commonly applied nondestructive analytical technique for characterizing fluid and melt inclusions. The exceptional spatial resolution (~1 µm) and excellent spectral resolution (?1 cm?1) permits the characterization of micrometer-scale phases and allows quantitative analyses based on Raman spectral features. Data provided by Raman analysis of fluid and melt inclusions has significantly advanced our understanding of complex geologic processes, including preeruptive volatile contents of magmas, the nature of fluids in the deep crust and upper mantle, the generation and evolution of methane-bearing fluids in unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. Anticipated future advances include the development of Raman mass spectroscopy and the use of Raman to monitor reaction progress in synthetic and natural fluid inclusion microreactors.
Abstract: Progressive mantle melting during the Earth’s earliest evolution led to the formation of a depleted mantle and a continental crust enriched in highly incompatible elements. Re-enrichment of Earth’s mantle can occur when continental crustal materials begin to founder into the mantle by either subduction or, to a lesser degree, by delamination processes, profoundly affecting the mantle’s trace element and volatile compositions. Deciphering when mantle re-enrichment/refertilization became a global-scale process would reveal the onset of efficient mass transfer of crust to the mantle and potentially when plate tectonic processes became operative on a global-scale. Here we document the onset of mantle re-enrichment/refertilization by comparing the abundances of petrogenetically significant isotopic values and key ratios of highly incompatible elements compared to lithophile elements in Archean to Early-Proterozoic mantle-derived melts (i.e., basalts and komatiites). Basalts and komatiites both record a rapid-change in mantle chemistry around 3.2 billion years ago (Ga) signifying a fundamental change in Earth geodynamics. This rapid-change is recorded in Nd isotopes and in key trace element ratios that reflect a fundamental shift in the balance between fluid-mobile and incompatible elements (i.e., Ba/La, Ba/Nb, U/Nb, Pb/Nd and Pb/Ce) in basaltic and komatiitic rocks. These geochemical proxies display a significant increase in magnitude and variability after ~3.2 Ga. We hypothesize that rapid increases in mantle heterogeneity indicate the recycling of supracrustal materials back into Earth’s mantle via subduction. Our new observations thus point to a???3.2 Ga onset of global subduction processes via plate tectonics.
Abstract: Quantifying the compositional evolution of mantle-derived melts from source to surface is fundamental for constraining the nature of primary melts and deep Earth composition. Despite abundant evidence for interaction between carbonate-rich melts, including diamondiferous kimberlites, and mantle wall rocks en route to surface, the effects of this interaction on melt compositions are poorly constrained. Here, we demonstrate a robust linear correlation between the Mg/Si ratios of kimberlites and their entrained mantle components and between Mg/Fe ratios of mantle-derived olivine cores and magmatic olivine rims in kimberlites worldwide. Combined with numerical modeling, these findings indicate that kimberlite melts with highly variable composition were broadly similar before lithosphere assimilation. This implies that kimberlites worldwide originated by partial melting of compositionally similar convective mantle sources under comparable physical conditions. We conclude that mantle assimilation markedly alters the major element composition of carbonate-rich melts and is a major process in the evolution of mantle-derived magmas.
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Vol. 398, 106872 17p. Pdf
United States, Hawaii
melting
Abstract: The syneruptive decompression rate of basaltic magma in volcanic conduits is thought to be a critical control on eruptive vigor. Recent efforts have constrained decompression rates using models of diffusive water loss from melt embayments (Lloyd et al. 2014; Ferguson et al. 2016), olivine-hosted melt inclusions (Chen et al. 2013; Le Voyer et al. 2014), and clinopyroxene phenocrysts (Lloyd et al. 2016). However, these techniques are difficult to apply because of the rarity of melt embayments and clinopyroxene phenocrysts suitable for analysis and the complexities associated with modeling water loss from melt inclusions. We are developing a new magma ascent chronometer based on syneruptive diffusive water loss from olivine phenocrysts. We have found water zonation in every olivine phenocryst we have measured, from explosive eruptions of Pavlof, Seguam, Fuego, Cerro Negro and Kilauea volcanoes. Phenocrysts were polished to expose a central plane normal to the crystallographic `b' axis and volatile concentration profiles were measured along `a' and `c' axes by SIMS or nanoSIMS. Profiles are compared to 1D and 3D finite-element models of diffusive water loss from olivine, with or without melt inclusions, whose boundaries are in equilibrium with a melt undergoing closed-system degassing. In every case, we observe faster water diffusion along the `a' axis, consistent with the diffusion anisotropy observed by Kohlstedt and Mackwell (1998) for the so-called `proton-polaron' mechanism of H-transport. Water concentration gradients along `a' match the 1D diffusion model with a diffusivity of 10-10 m2/s (see Plank et al., this meeting), olivine-melt partition coefficient of 0.0007-0.002 (based on melt inclusion-olivine pairs), and decompression rates equal to the best-fit values from melt embayment studies (Lloyd et al. 2014; Ferguson et al. 2016). Agreement between the melt embayment and water-in-olivine ascent chronometers at Fuego, Seguam, and Kilauea Iki demonstrates the potential of this new technique, which can be applied to any olivine-bearing mafic-intermediate eruption using common analytical tools (SIMS and FTIR). In theory, each crystal is a clock, with the potential to record variable ascent in the conduit, over the course of an eruption, and between eruptions.
Abstract: To evaluate the effect of Na on the carbonate-silicate liquid immiscibility in the diamond stability field, we performed experiments along some specific joins of the system KAlSi3O8-CaMg(CO3)2 ± NaAlSi2O6 ± Na2CO3 at 6 GPa. Melting in all studied joins begins at 1000-1050 °C. The melting in the Kfs + Dol system is controlled by the reaction 6 KAlSi3O8 (K-feldspar) + 6 CaMg(CO3)2 (dolomite) = 2 (Can,Mg1-n)3Al2Si3O12 (garnet) + Al2SiO5 (kyanite) + 11 SiO2 (coesite) + 3 K2(Ca1-n,Mgn)2(CO3)3 (carbonatitic melt) + 3 CO2 (fluid), where n ~ 0.3-0.4. A temperature increasing to 1300 °C yields an appearance of the silicic immiscible melt in addition to carbonatitic melt via the reaction K2CO3 (carbonatitic melt) + Al2SiO5 (kyanite) + 5 SiO2 (coesite) = 2 KAlSi3O8 (silicic melt) + CO2 (fluid or solute in melts). The silicic melt composition is close to KAlSi3O8 with dissolved CaMg(CO3)2 and molecular CO2. An addition of NaAlSi2O6 or Na2CO3 to the system results in partial decomposition of K-feldspar and formation of K-bearing carbonates, (K, Na)2Mg(CO3)2 and (K, Na)2Ca3(CO3)4. Their melting produces carbonatite melt with the approximate composition of 4(K, Na)2CO3•6Ca0.6Mg0.4CO3 and magnesite. Besides, the presence of NaAlSi2O6 in the studied system shifts the lower-temperature limit of immiscibility to 1500°?, while the presence of Na2CO3 eliminates the appearance of silicic melt by the following reaction: 2 KAlSi3O8 (in the silicic melt) + Na2CO3 = 2 NaAlSi2O6 (in clinopyroxene) + K2CO3 (in the carbonatitic melt) + SiO2 (coesite). Thus, an increase of the Na2O content in the system Na2O-K2O-CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2 consumes Al2O3 and SiO2 from silicic melt to form clinopyroxene. We found that grossular-pyrope and diopside-jadeite solid solutions can coexist with CO2 fluid at 900-1500 °C and 6 GPa. Thus, CO2 fluid is stable in the eclogitic suite in the diamond stability field under temperature conditions of the continental lithosphere and subducting slabs. Variations in the Na2O content observed in carbonatitic melts trapped by natural in diamonds exceed those derived by the pelite melting. The present experiments show that an addition of NaAlSi2O6 to the Kfs + Dol system does not cause an increase of the Na2O content in the carbonatitic melt, whereas the addition of Na2CO3 at Na2O/Al2O3 > 1 yields the formation of the melts with the Na2O contents covering the entire range of natural compositions. Thus, only the presence of additional salt components can explain the elevated Na2O content in the melts trapped in lithospheric diamonds. In addition to carbonates, sodium can be hosted by chlorides, sulfates, etc.
Abstract: New petrographic, geochemical, and isotopic (Sr, Nd, and ?18?) data on olivine and pyroxene phenocrysts provide constraints on the composition and crustal evolution of primary melts of Paleoproterozoic (2.40 Ga) picrodoleritic sills in the northwest Kola province, Fennoscandian Shield. The picrodolerites form differentiated sills with S-shaped compositional profiles. Their chilled margins comprise porphyritic picrodolerite (upper margin) and olivine gabbronorite (bottom) with olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts. Analysis of the available data allows us to recognize three main stages in the crystallization of mineral assemblages. The central parts of large (up to 2 mm) olivine phenocrysts (Ol-1-C) crystallized at the early stage. This olivine (Mg# 85-92) is enriched in Ni (from 2845 to 3419 ppm), has stable Ni/Mg ratio, low Ti, Mn and Co concentrations, and contains tiny (up to 10 ?m) diopside-spinel dendritic lamella that probably originated due to the exsolution from high Ca- and Cr- primary magmatic olivine. All these features of Ol-1-C are typical of olivine from primitive picritic and komatiitic magmas (De Hoog et al., 2010; Asafov et al., 2018). Ol-1-C contains large (up to 0.25 mm) crystalline inclusions of high-Al enstatite (Mg# 80-88) and clinopyroxene (Mg# 82-90), occasionally in association with Ti-pargasite and chromian spinel (60.4 wt.% Al2O3). These inclusions are regarded as microxenoliths of wall rock that were captured by primary melt at depths more than 30 km and preserved due to the conservation in magmatic olivine. The second stage was responsible for the crystallization of Ol-1 rim (Ol-1-R), small (up to 0.3 mm) olivine (Ol-2, Mg# 76-85) grains, and central parts of large (up to 1.5 mm) clinopyroxene (Cpx-C) phenocrysts in the mid-crustal transitional magma chamber (at a depth of 15-20 km) at 1160-1350°C. At the third stage, Cpx-C phenocrysts were overgrown by low-Mg rims (Mg# 70-72) similar in composition to the groundmass clinopyroxene from chilled picrodolerite and gabbro-dolerite in the central parts of the sills. This stage likely completed the evolution of picrodoleritic magma and occurred in the upper crust at a depth of about 5 km. All stages of picrodoleritic magma crystallization were accompanied by contamination. Primary melts were contaminated by upper mantle and/or lower crust as recognized from xenocrystic inclusions in Ol-1-C. The second contamination stage is supported by the negative values of ?Nd(2.40) = -1.1 in clinopyroxene phenocrysts. At the third stage, contamination likely occurred in the upper crust when ascending melts filled gentle fractures. This caused vertical whole-rock Nd heterogeneity in the sills (Erofeeva et al., 2019), and difference in Nd isotopic composition of clinopyroxene phenocrysts and doleritic groundmass. It was also recognized that residual evolved melts are enriched in radiogenic strontium but have neodymium isotopic composition similar to other samples. It could be explained by the interaction of the melts with fluid formed via decomposition of biotite from surrounding gneisses under the effect of high-temperature melts.
Abstract: We present experimentally determined trace element partition coefficients (D) between pyrochlore-group minerals (Ca2(Nb,Ta)2O6(O,F)), Ca fersmite (CaNb2O6), and silicate melts. Our data indicate that pyrochlores and fersmite are able to strongly fractionate trace elements during the evolution of SiO2-undersaturated magmas. Pyrochlore efficiently fractionates Zr and Hf from Nb and Ta, with DZr and DHf below or equal to unity, and DNb and DTa significantly above unity. We find that DTa pyrochlore-group mineral/silicate melt is always higher than DNb, which agrees with the HFSE partitioning of all other Ti-rich minerals such as perovskite, rutile, ilmenite or Fe-Ti spinel. Our experimental partition coefficients also show that, under oxidizing conditions, DTh is higher than corresponding DU and this implies that pyrochlore-group minerals may fractionate U and Th in silicate magmas. The rare earth element (REE) partition coefficients are around unity, only the light REE are compatible in pyrochlore-group minerals, which explains the high rare earth element concentrations in naturally occurring magmatic pyrochlores.
Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 114, pp. 363-373. pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Sulfur is an important element present in natural kimberlites and along with CO2, S can play a role in the kimberlite degassing. We have investigated experimentally the change in S content and CO2 solubility in synthetic kimberlitic melts in response to a range of pressure (0.5 to 2.0 GPa) and temperature (1500 to 1525 °C). Several initial S concentrations were investigated ranging from 0 to 24000 ppm. The dissolved CO2 and S were determined by Raman spectroscopy and Electron Probe Micro-Analyses. Under the investigated oxidizing conditions (?FMQ?+?1), S is dissolved in the glass only as S6+ forming sulfate molecular groups (SO42?). The measured S concentration in the glasses increases from 2900 to 22000 ppm. These results suggest that the experimental conditions were below saturation with respect to S and that the S solubility is higher than 22000 ppm for kimberlitic melts; regardless of the experimental conditions considered here. CO2 is dissolved as CO32? molecular groups. The CO2 solubility ranges from 3.0 to 11.3 wt% between 0.5 and 2.0 GPa. CO2 solubility is not affected by the presence of S; which suggests that SO42? and CO32? clusters have two distinct molecular environments not interacting together. This result implies that both CO2 and S are efficiently transported by kimberlitic melt from the upper mantle towards the atmosphere.
American Mineralogist, Vol. 105, pp. 1662-1671. pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Zircon is the most frequently used mineral for dating terrestrial and extraterrestrial rocks. However, the system of zircon in mafic/ultramafic melts has been rarely explored experimentally and most existing models based on the felsic, intermediate and/or synthetic systems are probably not applicable for prediction of zircon survival in terrestrial shallow asthenosphere. In order to determine the zircon stability in such natural systems, we have performed high-temperature experiments of zircon dissolution in natural mid-ocean ridge basaltic and synthetic haplobasaltic melts coupled with in situ electron probe microanalyses of the experimental products at high current.
Taking into account the secondary fluorescence effect in zircon glass pairs during electron microprobe analysis, we have calculated zirconium diffusion coefficient necessary to predict zircon survival in asthenospheric melts of tholeiitic basalt composition. The data imply that typical 100 micron zircons dissolve rapidly (in 10 hours) and congruently upon the reaction with basaltic melt at mantle pressures. We observed incongruent (to crystal ZrO2 and SiO2 in melt) dissolution of zircon in natural mid-ocean ridge basaltic melt at low pressures and in haplobasaltic melt at elevated pressure. Our experimental data raise questions about the origin of zircons in mafic and ultramafic rocks, in particular, in shallow oceanic asthenosphere and deep lithosphere, as well as the meaning of the zircon-based ages estimated from the composition of these minerals. Large size zircon megacrysts in kimberlites, peridotites, alkali basalts and other magmas suggest the fast transport and short interaction between zircon and melt.The origin of zircon megacrysts is likely related to metasomatic addition of Zr into mantle as any mantle melting episode should obliterate them.
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Vol. 309, 106600, 20p. Pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Over the last decade, seismological studies have shed new light on the properties of the mantle lithosphere and their physical and chemical origins. This paper synthesizes recent work to draw comparisons between oceanic and continental lithosphere, with a particular focus on isotropic velocity structure and its implications for mantle temperature and partial melt. In the oceans, many observations of scattered and reflected body waves indicate velocity contrasts whose depths follow an age-dependent trend. New modeling of fundamental mode Rayleigh waves from the Pacific ocean indicates that cooling plate models with asymptotic plate thicknesses of 85-95 km provide the best overall fits to phase velocities at periods of 25 s to 250 s. These thermal models are broadly consistent with the depths of scattered and reflected body wave observations, and with oceanic heat flow data. However, the lithosphere-asthenosphere velocity gradients for 85-95 km asymptotic plate thicknesses are too gradual to generate observable Sp phases, both at ages less than 30 Ma and at ages of 80 Ma or more. To jointly explain Rayleigh wave, scattered and reflected body waves and heat flow data, we propose that oceanic lithosphere can be characterized as a thermal boundary layer with an asymptotic thickness of 85-95 km, but that this layer contains other features, such as zones of partial melt from hydrated or carbonated asthenosphere, that enhance the lithosphere-asthenosphere velocity gradient. Beneath young continental lithosphere, surface wave constraints on lithospheric thickness are also compatible with the depths of lithosphere-asthenosphere velocity gradients implied by converted and scattered body waves. However, typical steady-state conductive models consistent with continental heat flow produce thermal and velocity gradients that are too gradual in depth to produce observed converted and scattered body waves. Unless lithospheric isotherms are concentrated in depth by mantle upwelling or convective removal, the presence of an additional factor, such as partial melt at the base of the thermal lithosphere, is needed to sharpen lithosphere-asthenosphere velocity gradients in many young continental regions. Beneath cratons, numerous body wave conversions and reflections are observed within the thick mantle lithosphere, but the velocity layering they imply appears to be laterally discontinuous. The nature of cratonic lithosphere-asthenosphere velocity gradients remains uncertain, with some studies indicating gradual transitions that are consistent with steady-state thermal models, and other studies inferring more vertically localized velocity gradients.
Abstract: Continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) may have been built from subducted slabs, but the apparent lack of concurrent oceanic crust in CLM, known as the mass imbalance problem, remains unresolved. Here, we present a simple dynamic model to evaluate the likelihood of losing dense eclogitized oceanic crust from CLM by gravitational instability. Our model allowed us to assess the long-term evolution of such crust removal, based on how thermal and viscosity profiles change over time across the continental lithosphere. We found that the oceanic crust incorporated early into CLM can quickly escape to the asthenosphere, whereas that incorporated after a certain age would be preserved in CLM. This study provides a plausible explanation for the mass imbalance problem posed by the oceanic ridge origin hypothesis of CLM and points to the significance of preservation bias inherent to the studies of cratonic diamonds.
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, doi.org/10.1016/ j.pepi.2-19.106325 54p. Pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: It has long been inferred that mantle metasomatism and the incompatible element enrichment of the continents both require movement of melts formed by very low degree melting of the mantle. Yet establishing the presence of these melts and whether this process is on-going and continuous, or spatially and temporally restricted, has proved difficult. Here we report large U-Th-Ra disequilibria in metasomatised, mantle xenoliths erupted in very young lavas from the Newer Volcanics Province in southeastern Australia. The 226Ra-230Th disequilibria appear to require reappraisal of previous estimates for the age of eruption that now seems unlikely to be more than a few kyr at most. We propose that infiltration of carbonatitic melts/fluids, combined with crystallization of pargasite, can account for the first order U-series disequilibria observations. Irrespective of the exact details of the complex processes responsible, the half-lives of the nuclides require that some of the chemical and isotopic disturbance was extremely young (« 8?kyr) and potentially on-going at the time of incorporation into the alkali basalts that transported the xenoliths to the surface. This provides evidence for the presence and possibly continuing migration of small melt fractions (~0.02%) in the upper convecting mantle that may contribute to the seismic low velocity zone. By implication, it appears that the asthenosphere must lie close to its solidus, at least in this region. Pressure-temperature estimates indicate that the small degree melts identified could infiltrate as far as 25?km upwards into the sub-continental lithospheric mantle leading to strong incompatible element enrichment and the recent timing of this event this urges a reappraisal of the meaning of 300-500?Ma Nd model ages in mantle xenoliths from this region. In principle, the resultant metasomatised mantle could provide a component for some ocean island basalts, should the sub-continental lithospheric mantle be returned to the asthenosphere by convective removal at some later time.
Abstract: To evaluate the effect of Na on the carbonate-silicate liquid immiscibility in the diamond stability field, we performed experiments along some specific joins of the system KAlSi3O8-CaMg(CO3)2 ± NaAlSi2O6 ± Na2CO3 at 6 GPa. Melting in all studied joins begins at 1000-1050 °C. The melting in the Kfs + Dol system is controlled by the reaction 6 KAlSi3O8 (K-feldspar) + 6 CaMg(CO3)2 (dolomite) = 2 (Can,Mg1-n)3Al2Si3O12 (garnet) + Al2SiO5 (kyanite) + 11 SiO2 (coesite) + 3 K2(Ca1-n,Mgn)2(CO3)3 (carbonatitic melt) + 3 CO2 (fluid), where n ~ 0.3-0.4. A temperature increasing to 1300 °C yields an appearance of the silicic immiscible melt in addition to carbonatitic melt via the reaction K2CO3 (carbonatitic melt) + Al2SiO5 (kyanite) + 5 SiO2 (coesite) = 2 KAlSi3O8 (silicic melt) + CO2 (fluid or solute in melts). The silicic melt composition is close to KAlSi3O8 with dissolved CaMg(CO3)2 and molecular CO2. An addition of NaAlSi2O6 or Na2CO3 to the system results in partial decomposition of K-feldspar and formation of K-bearing carbonates, (K, Na)2Mg(CO3)2 and (K, Na)2Ca3(CO3)4. Their melting produces carbonatite melt with the approximate composition of 4(K, Na)2CO3•6Ca0.6Mg0.4CO3 and magnesite. Besides, the presence of NaAlSi2O6 in the studied system shifts the lower-temperature limit of immiscibility to 1500°?, while the presence of Na2CO3 eliminates the appearance of silicic melt by the following reaction: 2 KAlSi3O8 (in the silicic melt) + Na2CO3 = 2 NaAlSi2O6 (in clinopyroxene) + K2CO3 (in the carbonatitic melt) + SiO2 (coesite). Thus, an increase of the Na2O content in the system Na2O-K2O-CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2 consumes Al2O3 and SiO2 from silicic melt to form clinopyroxene. We found that grossular-pyrope and diopside-jadeite solid solutions can coexist with CO2 fluid at 900-1500 °C and 6 GPa. Thus, CO2 fluid is stable in the eclogitic suite in the diamond stability field under temperature conditions of the continental lithosphere and subducting slabs. Variations in the Na2O content observed in carbonatitic melts trapped by natural in diamonds exceed those derived by the pelite melting. The present experiments show that an addition of NaAlSi2O6 to the Kfs + Dol system does not cause an increase of the Na2O content in the carbonatitic melt, whereas the addition of Na2CO3 at Na2O/Al2O3 > 1 yields the formation of the melts with the Na2O contents covering the entire range of natural compositions. Thus, only the presence of additional salt components can explain the elevated Na2O content in the melts trapped in lithospheric diamonds. In addition to carbonates, sodium can be hosted by chlorides, sulfates, etc.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS, Vol. 117, 31, pp. 18285-18291. pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Deeply subducted carbonates likely cause low-degree melting of the upper mantle and thus play an important role in the deep carbon cycle. However, direct seismic detection of carbonate-induced partial melts in the Earth’s interior is hindered by our poor knowledge on the elastic properties of carbonate melts. Here we report the first experimentally determined sound velocity and density data on dolomite melt up to 5.9 GPa and 2046 K by in-situ ultrasonic and sink-float techniques, respectively, as well as first-principles molecular dynamics simulations of dolomite melt up to 16 GPa and 3000 K. Using our new elasticity data, the calculated VP/VS ratio of the deep upper mantle (?180-330 km) with a small amount of carbonate-rich melt provides a natural explanation for the elevated VP/VS ratio of the upper mantle from global seismic observations, supporting the pervasive presence of a low-degree carbonate-rich partial melt (?0.05%) that is consistent with the volatile-induced or redox-regulated initial melting in the upper mantle as argued by petrologic studies. This carbonate-rich partial melt region implies a global average carbon (C) concentration of 80-140 ppm. by weight in the deep upper mantle source region, consistent with the mantle carbon content determined from geochemical studies.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 303, pp. 92-109, pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: The role of water on melting in the mantle wedge is still debated due to large uncertainty on the estimates of H2O flux beneath arcs. B has been proven as an effective proxy for water flux because B and H2O show similar chemical behaviors during subduction. The Habahe mafic dikes from the Chinese Altai were emplaced within a narrow area (<20?km from south to north) during the northward subduction of the Junggar Ocean in the middle Paleozoic. These dikes have been classified into four types with distinct geochemical and Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb isotopic compositions, which originated from mantle sources metasomatized by different subduction components, including melts from subducted sediments (Type-I, Type-IV), fluids from subducted sediments (Type-II), and melts from subducted oceanic crust (Type-III). We present B content and isotope data for the Habahe mafic dikes to investigate the influence of subduction components on melting in the mantle wedge. Type-I and -III mafic dikes all have negative ?11B values (?7.7‰ to ?5.0‰) with variable B contents (3.65-13.4?ppm) and B/Nb ratios (2.10-7.39), indicating B isotopically light features for the subducted sediments and oceanic crust. Type-II mafic dikes have lower B contents (3.97-9.90?ppm) and higher B/Nb ratios (7.07-14.4) than Type-I mafic dikes, with a wide range of ?11B values from ?7.8‰ to ?2.7‰. This suggests that their mantle source may have been metasomatized by fluids from subducted serpentinite besides fluids from subducted sediments. Type-IV mafic dikes have higher B contents (17.0-27.5?ppm) and B/Nb ratios (25.0-40.8), and heavier B isotopic compositions (?11B?=??2.9‰ to +3.5‰) than Type-I mafic dikes. This indicates involvement of fluids from the slab serpentinite in metasomatism of their mantle source in addition to melts from the subducted sediments. The Habahe mafic dikes show wide range of B/Nb ratios, suggesting that different amounts of water were added into their mantle sources. These dikes exhibit variable Zr/Yb and Nb/Yb ratios, and constantly low TiO2/Yb, indicating their formation through different degrees melting of depleted mantle sources. Their Zr/Yb and Nb/Yb ratios are negatively correlated with B/Nb, which reflects elevation of the melting degree of their mantle sources as increasing water input. Similar trends are also observed in basalts from global arcs and their major and trace elements correlate well with B/Nb ratios. Thus, water flux should play an important role on melting in the mantle wedge and control magma compositions of the arcs.
Abstract: Liquids, glasses, and amorphous materials are ubiquitous in the Earth sciences and are intrinsic to a plethora of geological processes, ranging from volcanic activity, deep Earth melting events, metasomatic processes, frictional melting (pseudotachylites), lighting strikes (fulgurites), impact melting (tektites), hydrothermal activity, aqueous solution geochemistry, and the formation of dense high-pressure structures. However, liquids and glassy materials lack the long-range order that characterizes crystalline materials, and studies of their structure require a different approach to that of conventional crystallography. The pair distribution function is the neutron diffraction technique used to characterize liquid and amorphous states. When combined with atomistic models, neutron diffraction techniques can determine the properties and behavior of disordered structures.
American Mineralogist, Vol. 106, pp. 1835-1843. pdf
Mantle
sulfides
Abstract: The concentration of sulfur that can be dissolved in a silicate liquid is of fundamental importance because it is closely associated with several major Earth-related processes. Considerable effort has been made to understand the interplay between the efects of silicate melt composition and its capacity to retain sulfur, but the dependence on pressure and temperature is mostly based on experiments performed at pressures and temperatures below 6 GPa and 2073 K. Here we present a study of the effects of pressure and temperature on sulfur content at sulfide saturation of a peridotitic liquid. We performed 14 multi-anvil experiments using a peridotitic starting composition, and we produced 25 new measurements at conditions ranging from 7 to 23 GPa and 2173 to 2623 K. We analyzed the recovered samples using both electron microprobe and laser ablation ICP-MS. We compiled our data together with previously published data that were obtained at lower P-T conditions and with various silicate melt compositions. We present a new model based on this combined data set that encompasses the entire range of upper mantle pressure-temperature conditions, along with the efect of a wide range of silicate melt compositions. Our findings are consistent with earlier work based on extrapolation from lower-pressure and lower-temperature experiments and show a decrease of sulfur content at sulfide saturation (SCSS) with increasing pressure and an increase of SCSS with increasing temperature. We have extrapolated our results to pressure-temperature conditions of the Earth’s primitive magma ocean, and show that FeS will exsolve from the molten silicate and can efectively be extracted to the core by a process that has been termed the "Hadean Matte." We also discuss briefly the implications of our results for the lunar magma ocean.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 78, 10.1073/pnas2110427118 6p. Pdf
Cosmos
melting
Abstract: Refractory oxygen bound to cations is a key component of the interior of rocky exoplanets. Its abundance controls planetary properties including metallic core fraction, core composition, and mantle and crust mineralogy. Interior oxygen abundance, quantified with the oxygen fugacity (fO2), also determines the speciation of volatile species during planetary outgassing, affecting the composition of the atmosphere. Although melting drives planetary differentiation into core, mantle, crust, and atmosphere, the effect of fO2 on rock melting has not been studied directly to date, with prior efforts focusing on fO2-induced changes in the valence ratio of transition metals (particularly iron) in minerals and magma. Here, melting experiments were performed using a synthetic iron-free basalt at oxygen levels representing reducing (log fO2 = ?11.5 and ?7) and oxidizing (log fO2 = ?0.7) interior conditions observed in our solar system. Results show that the liquidus of iron-free basalt at a pressure of 1 atm is lowered by 105 ± 10?°C over an 11 log fO2 units increase in oxygen abundance. This effect is comparable in size to the well-known enhanced melting of rocks by the addition of H2O or CO2. This implies that refractory oxygen abundance can directly control exoplanetary differentiation dynamics by affecting the conditions under which magmatism occurs, even in the absence of iron or volatiles. Exoplanets with a high refractory oxygen abundance exhibit more extensive and longer duration magmatic activity, leading to more efficient and more massive volcanic outgassing of more oxidized gas species than comparable exoplanets with a lower rock fO2.
Abstract: Carbonatites are unique, enigmatic, and controversial rocks directly sourced from, or evolved from, mantle melts. Mineral proportions and chemical compositions of carbonatites are highly variable and depend on a wide range of processes: melt generation, liquid immiscibility, fractional crystallization, and post-magmatic alteration. Observations of plutonic carbon-atites and their surrounding metasomatic rocks (fenites) suggest that carbon-atite intrusions and volcanic rocks do not fully represent the true compositions of the parental carbonatite melts and fluids. Carbonatites are enriched in rare elements, such as niobium and rare earths, and may host deposits of these elements. Carbonatites are also important for understanding the carbon cycle and mantle evolution.
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiora, 13p. Pdf
Mantle
melting
Abstract: Physical properties of silicate melts play a key role for global planetary dynamics, controlling for example volcanic eruption styles, mantle convection and elemental cycling in the deep Earth. They are significantly modified by structural changes at the atomic scale due to external parameters such as pressure and temperature or due to chemistry. Structural rearrangements such as 4- to 6-fold coordination change of Si with increasing depth may profoundly influence melt properties, but have so far mostly been studied at ambient temperature due to experimental difficulties. In order to investigate the structural properties of silicate melts and their densification mechanisms at conditions relevant to the deep Earth's interior, we studied haplo basaltic glasses and melts (albite-diopside composition) at high pressure and temperature conditions in resistively and laser-heated diamond anvil cells using X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy. Samples were doped with 10 wt of Ge, which is accessible with this experimental technique and which commonly serves as a structural analogue for the network forming cation Si. We acquired spectra on the Ge K edge up to 48 GPa and 5000 K and derived the average Ge-O coordination number , and bond distance as functions of pressure. Our results demonstrate a continuous transformation from tetrahedral to octahedral coordination between ca. 5 and 30 GPa at ambient temperature. Above 1600 K the data reveal a reduction of the pressure needed to complete conversion to octahedral coordination by ca. 30 . The results allow us to determine the influence of temperature on the Si coordination number changes in natural melts in the Earth's interior. We propose that the complete transition to octahedral coordination in basaltic melts is reached at about 40 GPa, corresponding to a depth of ca. 1200 km in the uppermost lower mantle. At the core-mantle boundary (2900 km, 130 GPa, 3000 K) the existence of non-buoyant melts has been proposed to explain observed low seismic wave velocity features. Our results highlight that the melt composition can affect the melt density at such extreme conditions and may strongly influence the structural response.
Abstract: Dense hydrous magnesium silicates (DHMSs) are considered important water carriers in the deep Earth. Due to the significant effect of Fe on the stability of DHMSs, Fe-bearing Phase D (PhD) deserves much attention. However, few experiments have been conducted to determine the stability of PhD in different bulk compositions. In this study, we provide experimental constraints for the stability of PhD in the AlOOH-FeOOH-Mg1.11Si1.89O6H2.22 system between 18 and 25 GPa at 1000-1600 °C, corresponding to the P-T conditions of the mantle transition zone and uppermost lower mantle. Fe3+-bearing PhD was synthesized from the FeOOH-Mg1.11Si1.89O6H2.22 binary system with two different Fe3+ contents. The resultant Al,Fe3+-bearing compositions are close to analog specimens of the fully oxidized mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) and pyrolite in the AlOOH-FeOOH-Mg1.11Si1.89O6H2.22 ternary system. The substitution mechanism of Fe is shown to be dependent on pressure, and Fe3+ occupies both Mg and Si sites in PhD at pressures below 21 GPa. In contrast, Fe3+ only occupies Si site at pressures exceeding 21 GPa. The presence of Fe3+ results in a slight reduction in the thermal stability field of PhD in the FeOOH-Mg1.11Si1.89O6H2.22 system in comparison to Mg-bearing, Fe-free PhD. In contrast, Al,Fe3+-bearing PhD is more stable than Mg-bearing PhD in both MORB and pyrolite compositions. In this regard, Al,Fe3+-bearing PhD could act as a long-term water reservoir during subduction processes to the deep mantle.