Ananya Mallik

Carbon-dioxide-rich silicate melt in the Earth's upper mantle.

The onset of melting in the Earth’s upper mantle influences the thermal evolution of the planet, fluxes of key volatiles to the exosphere, and geochemical and geophysical properties of the mantle. Although carbonatitic melt could be stable 250 km or less beneath mid-oceanic ridges, owing to the small fraction (∼0.03 wt%) its effects on the mantle properties are unclear. Geophysical measurements, however, suggest that melts of greater volume may be present at ∼200 km (refs 3–5) but large melt fractions are thought to be restricted to shallower depths. Here we present experiments on carbonated peridotites over 2–5 GPa that constrain the location and the slope of the onset of silicate melting in the mantle. We find that the pressure–temperature slope of carbonated silicate melting is steeper than the solidus of volatile-free peridotite and that silicate melting of dry peridotite + CO2 beneath ridges commences at ∼180 km. Accounting for the effect of 50–200 p.p.m. H2O on freezing point depression, the onset of silicate melting for a sub-ridge mantle with ∼100 p.p.m. CO2 becomes as deep as ∼220–300 km. We suggest that, on a global scale, carbonated silicate melt generation at a redox front ∼250–200 km deep, with destabilization of metal and majorite in the upwelling mantle, explains the oceanic low-velocity zone and the electrical conductivity structure of the mantle. In locally oxidized domains, deeper carbonated silicate melt may contribute to the seismic X-discontinuity. Furthermore, our results, along with the electrical conductivity of molten carbonated peridotite and that of the oceanic upper mantle, suggest that mantle at depth is CO2-rich but H2O-poor. Finally, carbonated silicate melts restrict the stability of carbonatite in the Earth’s deep upper mantle, and the inventory of carbon, H2O and other highly incompatible elements at ridges becomes controlled by the flux of the former.

Effect of variable CO2 on eclogite-derived andesite and lherzolite reaction at 3 GPa—Implications for mantle source characteristics of alkalic ocean island basalts

We have performed reaction experiments between 1, 4, and 5 wt % CO2-bearing MORB-eclogite (recycled oceanic crust)-derived low-degree andesitic partial melt and fertile peridotite at 1375°C, 3 GPa for infiltrating melt fractions of 25% and 33% by weight. We observe that the reacted melts are alkalic with degree of alkalinity or Si undersaturation increasing with increasing CO2 content in reacting melt. Consequently, an andesite evolves through basanite to nephelinite owing to greater drawdown of SiO2 from melt and enhanced precipitation of orthopyroxene in residue. We have developed an empirical model to predict reacted melt composition as a function of reacting andesite fraction and source CO2 concentration. Using our model, we have quantified the mutual proportions of equilibrated melt from andesite-peridotite (+ CO2) hybridization and subsequent peridotite (± CO2)-derived melt required to produce the major element composition of various ocean island basalts. Our model can thus be applied to characterize the source of ocean islands from primary alkalic lava composition. Accordingly, we determined that average HIMU source requires 24 wt % of MORB-eclogite-derived melt relative to peridotite containing 2 wt % CO2 and subsequent contribution of 45% of volatile-free peridotite partial melt. We demonstrate that mantle hybridization by eclogite melt-peridotite (± CO2) reaction in the system can produce high MgO (>15 wt %) basaltic melts at mantle potential temperature (TP) of 1350°C. Therefore, currently used thermometers to estimate TP using MgO content of primary alkalic melts need to be revised, with corrections for melt-rock reaction in a heterogeneous mantle as well as presence of CO2.

Oceanic lavas sampling the high-3He/4He mantle reservoir: Primitive, depleted, or re-enriched?

Abstract Helium isotopes are used as a tracer for primitive reservoirs that have persisted in the Earth’s mantle. Basalts erupted at several intraplate oceanic islands, including Hawaii, Iceland, Galapagos, and Samoa, have hosted the highest 3He/4He ratios (>30 Ra, where Ra is atmospheric 3He/4He ratio) globally that are far in excess of the 3He/4He typical of the upper mantle sampled at mid-ocean ridges (8 Ra). These lavas have been suggested to be melts of a primitive, or possibly slightly depleted, mantle reservoir, i.e., either fertile or a depleted peridotite. Here we report evidence for geochemical enrichment in the high-3He/4He mantle sampled by lavas with the highest 3He/4He from Hawaii, Samoa, and possibly Galapagos. The titanium concentrations in high-3He/4He lavas from Samoa are too high to be explained by melts of a mantle peridotite, even at infinitesimally small degrees of melting, and the elevated Ti corresponds to elevated Pb-isotopic ratios. The highest 3He/4He lavas from Loihi, Hawaii, also have Ti concentrations that are too high to be melts of primitive mantle peridotite at the degrees of melt extraction proposed for this ocean island. Thus, Ti-rich material must have been added to the high-3He/4He mantle reservoir, and this material is likely to be recycled mafic crust similar to MORBlike eclogite, which is consistent with the elevated Pb-isotopic ratios. We show that fractionation corrected, major element compositions of high-3He/4He alkalic lavas can be satisfactorily modeled by melting and melt-rock interaction scenario in a fertile peridotite-MORB-eclogite hybrid system. Primitive peridotitic and recycled eclogitic reservoirs are suggested to be intimately associated in the deepest mantle and high-3He/4He lavas from several localities may sample a mantle source that hosts a component of recycled oceanic crust.