The "Global Salt Cycle": Formation of Giant Salt Accumulations, a Result of Subduction, Mantle Upwelling, and Rifting

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.

Two billion years of episodic and simultaneous websteritic and eclogitic diamond formation beneath the Orapa kimberlite cluster, Botswana

The Sm–Nd isotope systematics and geochemistry of eclogitic, websteritic and peridotitic garnet and clinopyroxene inclusions together with characteristics of their corresponding diamond hosts are presented for the Letlhakane mine, Botswana. These data are supplemented with new inclusion data from the nearby (20–30 km) Orapa and Damtshaa mines to evaluate the nature and scale of diamond-forming processes beneath the NW part of the Kalahari Craton and to provide insight into the evolution of the deep carbon cycle. The Sm–Nd isotope compositions of the diamond inclusions indicate five well-defined, discrete eclogitic and websteritic diamond-forming events in the Orapa kimberlite cluster at 220 ± 80 Ma, 746 ± 100 Ma, 1110 ± 64 Ma, 1698 ± 280 Ma and 2341 ± 21 Ma. In addition, two poorly constrained events suggest ancient eclogitic (> 2700 Ma) and recent eclogitic and websteritic diamond formation (< 140 Ma). Together with sub-calcic garnets from two harzburgitic diamonds that have Archaean Nd mantle model ages (TCHUR) between 2.86 and 3.38 Ga, the diamonds studied here span almost the entire temporal evolution of the SCLM of the Kalahari Craton. The new data demonstrate, for the first time, that diamond formation occurs simultaneously and episodically in different parageneses, reflecting metasomatism of the compositionally heterogeneous SCLM beneath the area (~ 200 km2). Diamond formation can be directly related to major tectono-magmatic events that impacted the Kalahari Craton such as crustal accretion, continental breakup and large igneous provinces. Compositions of dated inclusions, in combination with marked variations in the carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions of the host diamonds, record mixing arrays between a minimum of three components (A: peridotitic mantle; B: eclogites dominated by mafic material; C: eclogites that include recycled sedimentary material). Diamond formation appears dominated by local fluid–rock interactions involving different protoliths in the SCLM. Redistribution of carbon during fluid–rock interactions generally masks any potential temporal changes of the deep carbon cycle.

Parageneses of TiB2 in corundum xenoliths from Mt. Carmel, Israel: Siderophile behavior of boron under reducing conditions

Titanium diboride (TiB2) is a minor but common phase in melt pockets trapped in the corundum aggregates that occur as xenoliths in Cretaceous basaltic volcanoes on Mt. Carmel, north Israel. These melt pockets show extensive textural evidence of immiscibility between metallic (Fe-Ti-C-Si) melts, Ca-Al-Mg-Si-O melts, and Ti-(oxy)nitride melts. The metallic melts commonly form spherules in the coexisting oxide glass. Most of the observed TiB2 crystallized from the Fe-Ti-C silicide melts and a smaller proportion from the oxide melts. The parageneses in the melt pockets of the xenoliths require fO2 ≤ ΔIW-6, probably generated through interaction between evolved silicate melts and mantle-derived CH4+H2 fluids near the crust-mantle boundary. Under these highly reducing conditions boron, like carbon and nitrogen, behaved mainly as a siderophile element during the separation of immiscible metallic and oxide melts. These parageneses have implications for the residence of boron in the peridotitic mantle and for the occurrence of TiB2 in other less well-constrained environments such as ophiolitic chromitites.

Simultaneous Quantification of Forsterite Content and Minor–Trace Elements in Olivine by LA–ICP–MS and Geological Applications in Emeishan Large Igneous Province

Olivine forsterite contents [Fo = 100 × Mg/(Mg + Fe) in mol%] and minor–trace element concentrations can aid our understanding of the Earth’s mantle. Traditionally, these data are obtained by electron probe microanalysis for Fo contents and minor elements, and then by laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) for trace elements. In this study, we demonstrate that LA–ICP–MS, with a simplified 100% quantification approach, allows the calculation of Fo contents simultaneously with minor–trace elements. The approach proceeds as follows: (1) calculation of Fo contents from measured Fe/Mg ratios; (2) according to the olivine stoichiometric formula [(Mg, Fe)2SiO4] and known Fo contents, contents of Mg, Fe and Si can be computed, which are used as internal standards for minor–trace element quantification. The Fo content of the MongOLSh 11-2 olivine reference material is 89.55 ± 0.15 (2 s; N = 120), which agrees with the recommended values of 89.53 ± 0.05 (2 s). For minor–trace elements, the results matched well with the recommended values, apart from P and Zn data. This technique was applied to olivine phenocrysts in the Lijiang picrites from the Emeishan large igneous province. The olivine compositions suggest that the Lijiang picrites have a peridotitic mantle source.

Secular evolution of the lithospheric mantle beneath the northern margin of the North China Craton: Insights from zoned olivine xenocrysts in Early Cretaceous basalts

Abundant zoned olivine xenocrysts from Early Cretaceous basalts of the Yixian Formation in western Liaoning Province, China, contain critical information about the nature and evolution of the lithospheric mantle of the northern North China Craton. These olivine xenocrysts are large (600–1600 µm), usually rounded and embayed, with well-developed cracks. Their cores have high and uniform forsterite (Fo) contents (88–91), similar to the peridotitic olivine entrained by regional Cenozoic basalts. Their rims have much lower Fo contents (74–82), comparable to phenocrysts (72–81) in the host basalts. These characteristics reveal that the zoned olivine has been disaggregated from mantle xenoliths and thus can be used to trace the underlying lithospheric mantle at the time of basaltic magmatism. The olivine cores have high oxygen isotope compositions (δ18OSMOW = 5.9–7.0‰) relative to the normal mantle value, suggesting that the Early Cretaceous lithospheric mantle was enriched and metasomatized mainly by melts/fluids released from subducted oceanic crust that had experienced low-temperature hydrothermal alteration. Preservation of zoned olivine xenocrysts in the Early Cretaceous basalts indicates that olivine-melt/fluid reaction could have been prevalent in the lithospheric mantle as an important mechanism for the transformation from old refractory (high-Mg) peridotitic mantle to young, fertile (low-Mg), and enriched lithospheric mantle during the early Mesozoic.

Zircon Xenocrysts from Cenozoic Alkaline Basalts of the Ratanakiri Volcanic Province (Cambodia), Southeast Asia—Trace Element Geochemistry, O-Hf Isotopic Composition, U-Pb and (U-Th)/He Geochronology—Revelations into the Underlying Lithospheric Mantle

Zircon xenocrysts from alkali basalts in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia represent a unique low-Hf zircon within a 12,000 km long Indo-Pacific megacryst zone. Colorless, yellow, brown, and red crystals ({100}, {101}, subordinate {211}, {1103}), with hopper growth and corrosion features range up to 20 cm in size. Zircon chemistry indicates juvenile, Zr-saturated, mantle-derived alkaline melt (Hf 0.6–0.7 wt %, Y <0.2 wt %, U + Th + REE (Rare-Earth Elements) < 600 ppm, Zr/Hf 66–92, Eu/Eu*N ~1, positive Ce/Ce*N, HREE (Heavy REE) enrichment). Incompatible element depletion with increasing Yb/SmN from core to rim at ~ constant Hf suggests single stage growth. Ti-in-zircon temperatures (~570–740 °C) are lower than predicted by crystal morphology (800–900 °C) and decrease from core to rim (ΔT = 10–50 °C). The δ18O values (4.88 to 5.01‰ VSMOW (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water)) are relatively low for xenocrysts from the zircon Indo-Pacific zone (ZIP). The 176Hf/177Hf values (+ εHf 4.5–10.2) give TDepleted Mantle model source ages of 260–462 Ma and TCrustal ages of 391–754 Ma. The source magmas reflect variably depleted lithospheric mantle with little supracrustal input. Zircon U-Pb (0.88–1.56 Ma) and (U-Th)/He (0.86–1.02 Ma) ages are older than host basalt ages (~0.7 Ma), which suggests limited residence before transport. Zircon genesis suggests Zr-saturated, Al-undersaturated, carbonatitic-influenced, low-degree partial melting (<1%) of peridotitic mantle at ~60 km beneath the Indochina terrane.