scholarly journals Ophiolitic Pyroxenites Record Boninite Percolation in Subduction Zone Mantle

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Le Roux ◽  
Yan Liang

The peridotite section of supra-subduction zone ophiolites is often crosscut by pyroxenite veins, reflecting the variety of melts that percolate through the mantle wedge, react, and eventually crystallize in the shallow lithospheric mantle. Understanding the nature of parental melts and the timing of formation of these pyroxenites provides unique constraints on melt infiltration processes that may occur in active subduction zones. This study deciphers the processes of orthopyroxenite and clinopyroxenite formation in the Josephine ophiolite (USA), using new trace and major element analyses of pyroxenite minerals, closure temperatures, elemental profiles, diffusion modeling, and equilibrium melt calculations. We show that multiple melt percolation events are required to explain the variable chemistry of peridotite-hosted pyroxenite veins, consistent with previous observations in the xenolith record. We argue that the Josephine ophiolite evolved in conditions intermediate between back-arc and sub-arc. Clinopyroxenites formed at an early stage of ophiolite formation from percolation of high-Ca boninites. Several million years later, and shortly before exhumation, orthopyroxenites formed through remelting of the Josephine harzburgites through percolation of ultra-depleted low-Ca boninites. Thus, we support the hypothesis that multiple types of boninites can be created at different stages of arc formation and that ophiolitic pyroxenites uniquely record the timing of boninite percolation in subduction zone mantle.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rilla C. McKeegan ◽  
Victor E. Guevara ◽  
Adam F. Holt ◽  
Cailey B. Condit

<p>The dominant mechanisms that control the exhumation of subducted rocks and how these mechanisms evolve through time in a subduction zone remain unclear. Dynamic models of subduction zones suggest that their thermal structures evolve from subduction initiation to maturity. The series of metamorphic reactions that occur within the slab, resultant density, and buoyancy with respect to the mantle wedge will co-evolve with the thermal structure. We combine dynamic models of subduction zone thermal structure with phase equilibria modeling to place constraints on the dominant controls on the depth limits of exhumation. This is done across the temporal evolution of a subduction zone for various endmember lithologic associations observed in exhumed high-pressure terranes: sedimentary and serpentinite mélanges, and oceanic tectonic slices.</p><p>Initial modeling suggests that both serpentinite and sedimentary mélanges remain positively buoyant with respect to the mantle wedge throughout all stages of subduction (up to 65 Myr), and for the spectrum of naturally constrained ratios of mafic blocks to serpentinite/sedimentary matrix. In these settings, exhumation depth limits and the “point of no return” (c. 2.3 GPa) are not directly limited by buoyancy, but potentially rheological changes in the slab at the blueschist-eclogite transition stemming from: the switch from amphibole-dominated to pyroxene-dominated rheology and/or dehydration embrittlement. These mechanisms may increase the possibility of brittle failure and hence promote detachment of the slab top into the subduction channel. For the range of temperatures recorded by exhumed serpentinite mélanges, the locus of dehydration for altered MORB at the slab top coincides with the point of no return (2.3 GPa) between 35 and 40 Myr, suggesting a strong temporal dependence on deep exhumation in the subduction channel. </p><p>Tectonic slices composed of 50% mafic rocks and 50% serpentinized slab mantle show a temporal dependence on the depth limits of positive buoyancy. For the range of temperatures recorded by exhumed tectonic slices, the upper pressure limit of positive buoyancy is ~2 GPa, and is only crossed between ~30 and 40 Myr after subduction initiation. Some exhumed tectonic slices record much higher pressures (2.5 GPa); thus, other mechanisms or lithologic combinations may also play a significant role in determining the exhumation limits of tectonic slices. </p><p>Future work includes constraining how the loci of dehydration vary through time for different degrees of oceanic crust alteration, how exhumation limits and mechanisms may change with different subducting plate ages, and calculating how initial exhumation velocities may vary through time. Further comparison with the rock record will constrain the parameters that control the timing and limits of exhumation in subduction zones.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuval Boneh ◽  
Matej Pec ◽  
Greg Hirth

<p>Subduction-zone dynamics, kinematics, and seismicity are strongly affected by the rheology of hydrous phyllosilicates. Although there is growing evidence for hydrous minerals in the subducting plate, mantle wedge, and the interface between the plates, we are continuing to learn more about the rheological behavior of phyllosilicates at the relevant pressures. Talc is stable to depths of ≈100 km and has been found in fault rocks and subduction-zones mélanges as the product of metasomatism and/or mineral breakdown (e.g., breakdown of antigorite). The frictional strength of talc under low to intermediate pressures (up to ~400 MPa) was studied and demonstrated some of the mineral’s unique rheology; however, there is a lack of data for pressures of P > 0.5 GPa. Here we present the first rheological and microstructural analysis of experimentally deformed talc under pressure and temperature conditions relevant for the rheology of a subducted slab or mantle wedge.</p><p>We analyzed the mechanical and microstructural evolution of 15 samples of natural talc cylinders deformed using a high P-T deformation ‘Griggs’ type apparatus. We used natural samples comprise of >98 % talc and analyzed the post-mortem microstructure and chemistry of the samples using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and electron microprobe. The experiments were performed at confining pressures from 0.5 to 2 GPa and temperatures of 25 to 700°C; all within the talc stability field. Results show that the strength of talc at 25°C or 400°C is pressure-dependent up to the highest pressure tested (2 GPa). This behavior is attributed to brittle/semi-brittle mechanisms. At higher temperatures (500-700° C) and above a pressure threshold the strength becomes independent of pressure (e.g., when P > 1 GPa at T = 600 ° C), indicating that dilatant cracking is suppressed at these pressures. However, microstructural analysis indicates that fracturing is evident in all samples at all conditions examined. Interestingly, samples deformed at higher temperatures (>600°C) show more localized deformation. A synthesis of results from this study and previously published studies demonstrate that the strength of talc only becomes temperature-dependent at higher pressures. It is suggested that an increasing P-T geotherm of a subducted slab is likely to induce weakening and localization of talc-rich layers with possible implications for the mechanism to induce/hinder regional seismicity and affect the plate-coupling between the subducted and riding plates.   </p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nestor G. Cerpa ◽  
José Alberto Padrón-Navarta ◽  
Diane Arcay

<p>The subduction of water via lithospheric-mantle hydrous phases have major implications for the generation of arc and back-arc volcanism, as well as for the global water cycle. Most of the current numerical models use Perple_X [Connolly et al., 2009] to quantify water release from the slab and subsequent fluid migration in the mantle wedge. At UHP conditions, the phase diagrams generated with this thermodynamic code suggest that the breakdown of serpentine and chlorite leads to the near complete dehydration of the lithospheric mantle before reaching a 200-km depth. Laboratory experiments, however, have observed the stability of the 10-Å phase and the phase E in natural bulk compositions, which may hold moderate amounts of water, beyond the stability field of serpentine and chlorite [Fumagalli and Poli, 2005; Maurice et al., 2018]. Here, using 2D thermo-mechanical models, we explore to what extent the presence of these hydrous phases may favor a deeper subduction of water than those predicted by Perple_X.</p><p>We perform end-member models in terms of slab temperature and thickness of hydrated lithospheric mantle entering at trench. The computed geotherms within the uppermost subducted mantle show that the stability field of mantle hydrous phases around 600-800°C and 6-8 GPa is crucial for predictions of water fluxes. We point out that the lack of systematic experiments at these P-T conditions, as well as the absence of 10-Å and E phases in current thermodynamic databases, prevent accurate estimates of deep water transfers. We nonetheless build a phase diagram based on current experimental constraints that includes approximations of their stability field and qualitatively discuss the potential implications for fluid migration in the back-arc mantle wedge and water fluxes.</p>


The location and sequence of metamorphic devolatilization and partial melting reactions in subduction zones may be constrained by integrating fluid and rock pressure-temperature-time ( P-T-t ) paths predicted by numerical heat-transfer models with phase diagrams constructed for metasedimentary, metabasaltic, and ultramafic bulk compositions. Numerical experiments conducted using a two-dimensional heat transfer model demonstrate that the primary controls on subduction zone P-T-t paths are: (1) the initial thermal structure; (2) the amount of previously subducted lithosphere; (3) the location of the rock in the subduction zone; and (4) the vigour of mantle wedge convection induced by the subducting slab. Typical vertical fluid fluxes out of the subducting slab range from less than 0.1 to 1 (kg fluid) m -2 a -1 for a convergence rate of 3 cm a -1 . Partial melting of the subducting, amphibole-bearing oceanic crust is predicted to only occur during the early stages of subduction initiated in young (less than 50 Ma) oceanic lithosphere. In contrast, partial melting of the overlying mantle wedge occurs in many subduction zone experiments as a result of the infiltration of fluids derived from slab devolatilization reactions. Partial melting in the mantle wedge may occur by a twostage process in which amphibole is first formed by H 2 O infiltration and subsequently destroyed as the rock is dragged downward across the fluid-absent ‘hornblende-out’ partial melting reaction.


Solid Earth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 759-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Plunder ◽  
Cédric Thieulot ◽  
Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen

Abstract. The geotherm in subduction zones is thought to vary as a function of the subduction rate and the age of the subducting lithosphere. Along a single subduction zone the rate of subduction may strongly vary due to changes in the angle between the trench and the plate convergence vector, i.e., the subduction obliquity, due to trench curvature. We currently observe such curvature in, e.g., the Marianas, Chile and Aleutian trenches. Recently, strong along-strike variations in subduction obliquity were proposed to have caused a major temperature contrast between Cretaceous geological records of western and central Turkey. We test here whether first-order temperature variation in a subduction zone may be caused by variation in the trench geometry using simple thermo-kinematic finite-element 3-D numerical models. We prescribe the trench geometry by means of a simple mathematical function and compute the mantle flow in the mantle wedge by solving the equation of mass and momentum conservation. We then solve the energy conservation equation until steady state is reached. We analyze the results (i) in terms of mantle wedge flow with emphasis on the trench-parallel component and (ii) in terms of temperature along the plate interface by means of maps and the depth–temperature path at the interface. In our experiments, the effect of the trench curvature on the geotherm is substantial. A small obliquity yields a small but not negligible trench-parallel mantle flow, leading to differences of 30 °C along-strike of the model. Advected heat causes such temperature variations (linked to the magnitude of the trench-parallel component of velocity). With increasing obliquity, the trench-parallel component of the velocity consequently increases and the temperature variation reaches 200 °C along-strike. Finally, we discuss the implication of our simulations for the ubiquitous oblique systems that are observed on Earth and the limitations of our modeling approach. Lateral variations in plate sinking rate associated with curvature will further enhance this temperature contrast. We conclude that the synchronous metamorphic temperature contrast between central and western Turkey may well have resulted from reconstructed major variations in subduction obliquity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Maria Kokkaliari ◽  
Karen St. Seymour ◽  
Stylianos F. Tombros ◽  
Eleni Koutsopoulou

This paper aims to study the chromitites, as well as their host rocks (meta-peridotites, meta-dunites and serpentinites) of the ophiolite complex of Mount Tsiknias, in Tinos Island. Recognition of their mineralogy and their textural features was carried out through detailed petrographic study. The mineral chemistry analysis contributed to the evaluation of the analyzed chromites, the chemical composition of which provides important information about the petrogenetic evolution of the chromitite ores. The chromites were in equilibrium with boninite melts derived from Supra-Subduction Zone, e.g., a depleted mantle wedge. In the binary classification diagram for spinels, the Tinos samples extend in the fields of Mg-chromite and chromite sensu strictu. In the TiO2 vs Al2O3 diagram, the chromites plot in the field of Supra-Subduction Zone (SSZ) peridotites and partly overlap the field of chromites in Back-Arc Basalts (BABB), however the same samples plot in the field of chromite of boninites. In the Al2O3 vs Cr2O3 diagram both groups of Tinos chromites plot in the field/extremity of “mantle chromites”.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Collot ◽  
M. Patriat ◽  
R. Sutherland ◽  
S. Williams ◽  
D. Cluzel ◽  
...  

AbstractThe SW Pacific region consists of a succession of ridges and basins that were created by the fragmentation of Gondwana and the evolution of subduction zones since Mesozoic times. This complex geodynamic evolution shaped the geology of New Caledonia, which lies in the northern part of the Zealandia continent. Alternative tectonic models have been postulated. Most models agree that New Caledonia was situated on an active plate margin of eastern Gondwana during the Mesozoic. Extension affected the region from the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene and models for this period vary in the location and nature of the plate boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates. Eocene regional tectonic contraction included the obduction of a mantle-derived Peridotite Nappe in New Caledonia. In one class of model, this contractional phase was controlled by an east-dipping subduction zone into which the Norfolk Ridge jammed, whereas and in a second class of model this phase corresponds to the initiation of the west-dipping Tonga–Kermadec subduction zone. Neogene tectonics of the region near New Caledonia was dominated by the eastwards retreat of Tonga–Kermadec subduction, leading to the opening of a back-arc basin east of New Caledonia, and the initiation and southwestwards advance of the New Hebrides–Vanuatu subduction zone towards New Caledonia.


Author(s):  
Hans Konrad Johnsen ◽  
Hakon G Rueslatten ◽  
Martin Torvald Hovland

The main objective of this communication is to describe the ‘Global Salt Cycle’. Giant salt accumulations are commonly found along continental margins of former rifts. The first stage in the accumulation process is saturation of newly formed oceanic crust with seawater. Final mobilisation and accumulation of the salts occurs during rifting, localised in the vicinity of relict subduction zones. Oceanic crust is created along the spreading ridges in the deep oceans of the Earth. It exchanges mass and energy with seawater in hydrothermal circulation cells that penetrate deep into the new and fractured crust. Water-rock interactions include the formation of hydrated and hydroxylated minerals, e.g., serpentinites and clay minerals. By incorporating hydroxyl groups and water in their crystal lattices, the salinity of remaining brines increases. Subduction of oceanic crust and serpentinised lithosphere transports water, hydrated minerals, and marine salts deep into the crust and mantle. Upon pressurisation and heating of the subducting slab, different parts of this water are expelled at different depths/temperatures. The resulting fluids will contain salts brought in with the slab, as well as new salts formed by water-rock interaction. The combination of elevated pressures and temperatures, water, salinity, and CO2, create permeability in the normally impermeable, peridotitic mantle, by altering the fluid-rock dihedral angles of mineral grains. This P/T-determined intergranular permeability allows ascent of saline fluids, under lithostatic pressure, within the mantle wedge, or the slab itself. The fluids produce a mechanically weakened and buoyant zone within the mantle wedge due to high pore pressure between mineral grains and reduced mantle density. During the lifetime of a subduction zone, a substantial accumulation of saline fluids within the mantle wedge and crust, is evident. Deep, fluid reservoirs accumulate between the subduction trench and the volcanic front. They may exist for hundreds of millions of years, even after the extinction of the subduction zone. Saline fluids may escape to the surface along deep faults, due to overfilling of available pores/fractures. Fluids within the mantle wedge may form rock melts or exist as supercritical, mineral rich fluids. The combination of reduced pressure due to rifting, and a saline and buoyant mantle, creates a mantle circulation that brings the accumulated, saline fluids, to crustal levels. Salts will therefore accumulate during initial stages of rifting as a result of massive fluid expulsion, phase change and boiling of mantle fluids. No extra energy is required to produce phase change and boiling. The result is formation of solid salts or dense brines/slurries invading fractured crustal rocks, or escaping to the surface/seabed. This process may take place both before and after the sea has invaded a continental rift.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 745-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Warren

Abstract. The exhumation of high and ultra-high pressure rocks is ubiquitous in Phanerozoic orogens created during continental collisions, and is common in many ocean-ocean and ocean-continent subduction zone environments. Three different tectonic environments have previously been reported, which exhume deeply buried material by different mechanisms and at different rates. However it is becoming increasingly clear that no single mechanism dominates in any particular tectonic environment, and the mechanism may change in time and space within the same subduction zone. In order for buoyant continental crust to subduct, it must remain attached to a stronger and denser substrate, but in order to exhume, it must detach (and therefore at least locally weaken) and be initially buoyant. Denser oceanic crust subducts more readily than more buoyant continental crust but exhumation must be assisted by entrainment within more buoyant and weak material such as serpentinite or driven by the exhumation of structurally lower continental crustal material. Weakening mechanisms responsible for the detachment of crust at depth include strain, hydration, melting, grain size reduction and the development of foliation. These may act locally or may act on the bulk of the subducted material. Metamorphic reactions, metastability and the composition of the subducted crust all affect buoyancy and overall strength. Subduction zones change in style both in time and space, and exhumation mechanisms change to reflect the tectonic style and overall force regime within the subduction zone. Exhumation events may be transient and occur only once in a particular subduction zone or orogen, or may be more continuous or occur multiple times.


Author(s):  
Brian O’Driscoll ◽  
Julien Leuthold ◽  
Davide Lenaz ◽  
Henrik Skogby ◽  
James M D Day ◽  
...  

Abstract Samples of peridotites and pyroxenites from the mantle and lower crustal sections of the Leka Ophiolite Complex (LOC; Norway) are examined to investigate the effects of melt-rock reaction and oxygen fugacity variations in the sub-arc oceanic lithosphere. The LOC is considered to represent supra-subduction zone (SSZ) oceanic lithosphere, but also preserves evidence of pre-SSZ magmatic processes. Here we combine field and microstructural observations with mineral chemical and structural analyses of different minerals from the major lithologies of the LOC. Wehrlite and websterite bodies in both the mantle and lower crust contain clinopyroxene likely formed at a pre-SSZ stage, characterised by high Al, high Cr, low Mg crystal cores. These clinopyroxenes also exhibit low Al, low Cr, high Mg outer rims and intracrystalline dissolution surfaces, indicative of reactive melt percolation during intrusion and disruption of these lithologies by later, SSZ-related, dunite-forming magmas. Chromian-spinel compositional variations correlate with lithology; dunite-chromitite Cr-spinels are characterised by relatively uniform and high TiO2 and Al2O3, indicating formation by melt-rock reaction associated with SSZ processes. Harzburgite Cr-spinel compositions are more variable but preserve a relatively high Al2O3, low TiO2 endmember that may reflect crystallisation in a pre-SSZ oceanic spreading centre setting. An important finding of this study is that the LOC potentially preserves the petrological signature of a transition between oceanic spreading centre processes and subsequent supra-subduction zone magmatism. Single crystal Cr-spinel Fe3+/ΣFe ratios calculated on the basis of stoichiometry (from electron microprobe [EPMA] and crystal structural [X-ray diffraction; XRD] measurements) correlate variably with those calculated by point-source (single crystal) Mössbauer spectroscopy. Average sample EPMA Fe3+/ΣFe ratios overestimate or underestimate the Mössbauer-derived values for harzburgites, and always overestimate the Mössbauer Fe3+/ΣFe ratios for dunites and chromitites. The highest Fe3+/ΣFe ratios, irrespective of method of measurement, are therefore generally associated with dunites and chromitites, and yield calculated log(fO2)FMQ values of up to ~+1.8. While this lends support to the formation of the dunites and chromitites during SSZ-related melt percolation in the lower part of the LOC, it also suggests that these melts were not highly oxidised, compared to typical arc basalts (fO2FMQ of >+2). This may in turn reflect the early (forearc) stage of subduction zone activity preserved by the LOC and implies that some of the arc tholeiitic and boninitic lava compositions preserved in the upper portion of the ophiolite are not genetically related to the mantle and lower crustal rocks, against which they exhibit tectonic contacts. Our new data also have implications for the use of ophiolite chromitites as recorders of mantle oxidation state through time; a global comparison suggests that the Fe3+/ΣFe signatures of ophiolite chromitites are likely to have more to do with local environmental petrogenetic conditions in sub-arc systems than large length-scale mantle chemical evolution.


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