Teruaki Ishii

Fore-arc basalts and subduction initiation in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana system

Recent diving with the JAMSTEC Shinkai 6500 manned submersible in the Mariana fore arc southeast of Guam has discovered that MORB-like tholeiitic basalts crop out over large areas. These fore-arc basalts (FAB) underlie boninites and overlie diabasic and gabbroic rocks. Potential origins include eruption at a spreading center before subduction began or eruption during near-trench spreading after subduction began. FAB trace element patterns are similar to those of MORB and most Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) back-arc lavas. However, Ti/V and Yb/V ratios are lower in FAB reflecting a stronger prior depletion of their mantle source compared to the source of basalts from mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins. Some FAB also have higher concentrations of fluid-soluble elements than do spreading center lavas. Thus, the most likely origin of FAB is that they were the first lavas to erupt when the Pacific Plate began sinking beneath the Philippine Plate at about 51 Ma. The magmas were generated by mantle decompression during near-trench spreading with little or no mass transfer from the subducting plate. Boninites were generated later when the residual, highly depleted mantle melted at shallow levels after fluxing by a water-rich fluid derived from the sinking Pacific Plate. This magmatic stratigraphy of FAB overlain by transitional lavas and boninites is similar to that found in many ophiolites, suggesting that ophiolitic assemblages might commonly originate from near-trench volcanism caused by subduction initiation. Indeed, the widely dispersed Jurassic and Cretaceous Tethyan ophiolites could represent two such significant subduction initiation events.

Significance of serpentinization of wedge mantle peridotites beneath Mariana forearc, western Pacific

In the Mariana forearc, horst and graben structures are well developed in the outer forearc basement, which is composed of both island arc and oceanic crust-mantle rocks. A zone of dome-shaped diapiric seamounts, which are composed mainly of serpentinized peridotites, formed on the basement in the outer forearc regions. Serpentine minerals in peridotites from both diapiric seamounts and basement are mostly chrysotile and/or lizardite. Antigorite, however, is rarely found in peridotites recovered from Conical, Big Blue, Celestial, and South Chamorro Seamounts. Antigorite-bearing peridotites always contain secondary iron-rich olivine and metamorphic clinopyroxene, and antigorite seems to coexist stably with them. Iron-rich secondary olivine (Fo 86–90 ) occurs as overgrowth on the rim or along the cleavage traces of primary olivine (Fo 90–92 ). The assemblage shows high-temperature conditions of serpentinization at ~450–550 °C, whereas chrysotile- and/or lizardite-bearing assemblages occur at ~200–300 °C. In antigorite-bearing samples, chrysotile and/or lizardite veins both predating and postdating antigorite formation are recognized. This may reflect a complex process of tectonic cycling of shallow mantle wedge serpentinized peridotites to depth and then back again to the surface.

Geochemistry of peridotites from ODP Leg 125 diapiric serpentinites

Refractory spinel peridotites were drilled during Leg 125 from two diapiric serpentinite seamounts: Conical Seamount in the Mariana forearc (Sites 778-780) and Torishima Forearc Seamount (Sites 783-784) in the Izu-Ogasawara forearc. Harzburgite is the predominant rock type in the recovered samples, with subordinate dunite; no lherzolite was found.The harzburgite is diopside-free to sparsely diopside-bearing, with modal percentages of diopside that range from 0% to 2%. Spinels in the harzburgites are chrome-rich (Cr/[Cr + Al] = 0.38-0.83; Fe3+/[Fe3+ + Cr + Al] = 0.01-0.07). Olivine and orthopyroxene are magnesian (Mg# = 0.92). Discrete diopsides reveal extreme depletion of light rare earth elements. Primary hornblende is rare. The bulk major-element chemistry shows low average values of TiO2 (trace), Al2O3 (0.55%) and CaO (0.60%), but high Mg# (0.90).These rocks are more depleted than the abyssal peridotites from the mid-oceanic ridge. They are interpreted as residues of extensive partial melting (= 30%), of which the last episode was in the mantle wedge, probably associated with the generation of incipient island-arc magma, including boninite and/or arc-tholeiite. These depleted peridotites probably represent the residues of melting within mantle diapirs that developed within the mantle wedge.