Oliver Shorttle

Compositional trends of Icelandic basalts: Implications for short–length scale lithological heterogeneity in mantle plumes

Lithological variations in the mantle source regions under mid-ocean ridges and ocean islands have been proposed to play a key role in controlling melt generation and basalt composition. Here we combine compositional observations from Icelandic basalts and modelling of melting of a bi-lithologic peridotite-pyroxenite mantle to demonstrate that, while short-lengthscale major element variation is present in the mantle under Iceland, source heterogeneity does not make an important contribution to excess melt production. By identifying the major element characteristics of endmember Icelandic melts, we find enriched melts to be characterised by low SiO2 and CaO, but high FeO. We quantitatively compare endmember compositions to experimental partial melts generated from a range of lithologies, pressures and melt fractions. This comparison indicates that a single source composition cannot account for all the major element variation; depleted Icelandic melts can be produced by depleted peridotite melting, but the major element composition of enriched melts is best matched by melting of mantle sources that have been refertilised by the addition of up to 40% mid-ocean ridge basalt. The enriched source beneath Iceland is more fusible than the source of depleted melts, and as such will be over-represented in accumulated melts compared with its abundance in the source. Modelling of peridotite-pyroxenite melting, combined with our observational constraints on the composition of the Icelandic mantle, indicates that crustal thickness variations in the North Atlantic must be primarily due to mantle temperature and flow field variations.

Control of the symmetry of plume‐ridge interaction by spreading ridge geometry

The Iceland, Gal´apagos and Azores plumes have previously been identified as interacting asymmetrically with adjacent spreading centres. We present evidence that the flow fields in these plume heads are radially symmetric, but the geometry of the mid-ocean ridge systems imparts an asymmetric compositional structure on outflowing plume material. First, we quantify the degree of symmetry in geophysical and geochemical observables as a function of plume centre location. For each plume, we find that bathymetry and crustal thickness observations can be explained using a single centre of symmetry, with these calculated centres coinciding with independently inferred plume centre locations. The existence of these centres of symmetry suggests that the flow fields and temperature structure of the three plume heads are radially symmetric. However, no centres of symmetry can be found for the incompatible trace element and isotopic observations. To explain this, we develop a simple kinematic model to predict the effect of midocean ridge geometry on the chemical composition of outflowing plume material. The model assumes radially symmetric outflow from a compositionally heterogeneous plume source, consisting of a depleted mantle component and enriched blebs. These blebs progressively melt out during flow through the melting regions under spreading centres. Asymmetry in trace element and isotopic profiles develops when ridges either side of the plume centre receive material that has been variably depleted according to the length of flow path under the ridge. This model can successfully explain compositional asymmetry around Iceland and Gal´apagos in terms of an axisymmetric plume interacting with an asymmetric ridge system.

The temperature of the Icelandic mantle from olivine-spinel aluminum exchange thermometry

New crystallization temperatures for four eruptions from the Northern Volcanic Zone of Iceland are determined using olivine-spinel aluminum exchange thermometry. Differences in the olivine crystallization temperatures between these eruptions are consistent with variable extents of cooling during fractional crystallization. However, the crystallization temperatures for Iceland are systematically offset to higher temperatures than equivalent olivine-spinel aluminum exchange crystallization temperatures published for MORB, an effect that cannot be explained by fractional crystallization. The highest observed crystallization temperature in Iceland is 1399 ± 20°C. In order to convert crystallization temperatures to mantle potential temperature, we developed a model of multilithology mantle melting that tracks the thermal evolution of the mantle during isentropic decompression melting. With this model, we explore the controls on the temperature at which primary melts begin to crystallize, as a function of source composition and the depth from which the magmas are derived. Large differences (200°C) in crystallization temperature can be generated by variations in mantle lithology, a magmas inferred depth of origin, and its thermal history. Combining this model with independent constraints on the magma volume flux and the effect of lithological heterogeneity on melt production, restricted regions of potential temperature-lithology space can be identified as consistent with the observed crystallization temperatures. Mantle potential temperature is constrained to be 1480^(+37)_(-30)°C for Iceland and 1318^(+44)_(-32)°C for MORB.

Deep mantle roots and continental emergence: implications for whole-Earth elemental cycling, long-term climate, and the Cambrian explosion

ABSTRACT Elevations on Earth are dominantly controlled by crustal buoyancy, primarily through variations in crustal thickness: continents ride higher than ocean basins because they are underlain by thicker crust. Mountain building, where crust is magmatically or tectonically thickened, is thus key to making continents. However, most of the continents have long passed their mountain building origins, having since subsided back to near sea level. The elevations of the old, stable continents are lower than that expected for their crustal thicknesses, requiring a subcrustal component of negative buoyancy that develops after mountain building. While initial subsidence is driven by crustal erosion, thermal relaxation through growth of a cold thermal boundary layer provides the negative buoyancy that causes continents to subside further. The maximum thickness of this thermal boundary layer is controlled by the thickness of a chemically and rheologically distinct continental mantle root, formed during large-scale mantle melting billions of years ago. The final resting elevation of a stabilized continent is controlled by the thickness of this thermal boundary layer and the temperature of the Earth’s mantle, such that continents ride higher in a cooler mantle and lower in a hot mantle. Constrained by the thermal history of the Earth, continents are predicted to have been mostly below sea level for most of Earth’s history, with areas of land being confined to narrow strips of active mountain building. Large-scale emergence of stable continents occurred late in Earth’s history (Neoproterozoic) over a 100–300 million year transition, irreversibly altering the surface of the Earth in terms of weathering, climate, biogeochemical cycling and the evolution of life. Climate during the transition would be expected to be unstable, swinging back and forth between icehouse and greenhouse states as higher order fluctuations in mantle dynamics would cause the Earth to fluctuate rapidly between water and terrestrial worlds.

Cometary impactors on the TRAPPIST-1 planets can destroy all planetary atmospheres and rebuild secondary atmospheres on planets f, g, and h

The TRAPPIST-1 system is unique in that it has a chain of seven terrestrial Earth-like planets located close to or in its habitable zone. In this paper, we study the effect of potential cometary impacts on the TRAPPIST-1 planets and how they would affect the primordial atmospheres of these planets. We consider both atmospheric mass loss and volatile delivery with a view to assessing whether any sort of life has a chance to develop. We ran N-body simulations to investigate the orbital evolution of potential impacting comets, to determine which planets are more likely to be impacted and the distributions of impact velocities. We consider three scenarios that could potentially throw comets into the inner region (i.e. within 0.1 au where the seven planets are located) from an (as yet undetected) outer belt similar to the Kuiper belt or an Oort cloud: planet scattering, the Kozai–Lidov mechanism, and Galactic tides. For the different scenarios, we quantify, for each planet, how much atmospheric mass is lost and what mass of volatiles can be delivered over the age of the system depending on the mass scattered out of the outer belt. We find that the resulting high-velocity impacts can easily destroy the primordial atmospheres of all seven planets, even if the mass scattered from the outer belt is as low as that of the Kuiper belt. However, we find that the atmospheres of the outermost planets f, g, and h can also easily be replenished with cometary volatiles (e.g. ∼ an Earth ocean mass of water could be delivered). These scenarios would thus imply that the atmospheres of these outermost planets could be more massive than those of the innermost planets, and have volatiles-enriched composition.