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Subduction factory processes beneath the Guguan cross-chain, Mariana Arc: no role for sediments, are serpentinites important?

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Abstract

We need to understand chemical recycling at convergent margins and how chemical interactions between subducted slab and the overlying mantle wedge affect mantle evolution and magmagenesis. This requires distinguishing contributions from recycled individual subducted components as well as those contributed by the mantle. We do this by examining magmatic products generated at different depths above a subduction zone, in an intra-oceanic arc setting. The Guguan cross-chain in the intra-oceanic Mariana arc overlies subducted Jurassic Pacific plate lithosphere at depths of ~125--230 km and erupts mostly basalt. Basalts from rear-arc volcanoes are more primitive than those from the magmatic front, in spite of being derived by lower degrees of melting of less-depleted mantle. Rear-arc magmas also show higher temperatures and pressures of equilibration. Coexisting mineral compositions become more MORB- or OIB-like with increasing height above the subduction zone. Trace element and isotopic variations indicate that the subduction component in cross-chain lavas diminishes with increasing depth to the subduction zone, except for water contents. There is little support for the idea that melting beneath the Mariana Trough back-arc basin depleted the source region of arc magmas, but melting to form rear-arc volcanoes may have depleted the source of magmatic front volcanoes. Enrichments in rear-arc lavas were not caused by sediment melting; the data instead favor an OIB-type mantle that has been modestly affected by subduction zone fluids. Our most important conclusion is that sediment fluids or melts are not responsible for the K--h relationship and other cross-chain chemical and isotopic variations. We speculate that an increasing role for supercritical fluids released from serpentinites interacting with modestly enriched mantle might be responsible for cross-chain geochemical and isotopic variations.

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Acknowledgments

The analytical assistance of Nate Miller at UTD is greatly appreciated. We thank J. Ryan and W. Leeman for their comments. We appreciate information about water contents in glass inclusions determined by Alison Shaw and Erik Hauri (DTM). We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful criticism. This work was supported by NSF grants OCE 0001827 and OCE 0405651 to RJS and OCE-137365 and EAR-0230145 to Vervoort. This is UTD Geosciences contribution #1075.

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  1. Ed Kohut

    Present address: Department of Geology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Box 830688, Richardson, TX, 75083, USA

    Robert J. Stern & Matthew Leybourne

  2. Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Ed Kohut & Sherman H. Bloomer

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University, Box 871404, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Matthew Fouch

  4. Department of Geology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    Jeff Vervoort

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Stern, R.J., Kohut, E., Bloomer, S.H. et al. Subduction factory processes beneath the Guguan cross-chain, Mariana Arc: no role for sediments, are serpentinites important?. Contrib Mineral Petrol 151, 202–221 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-005-0055-2

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