Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites

Continental crust in average exhibits a similar composition in both major and trace elements to andesites along active continental margins. For this reason, andesitic magmatism above oceanic subduction zones is considered to have played a key role in the generation of continental crust along converg...

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Main Authors: Long Chen, Yong-Fei Zheng, Zheng Xu, Zi-Fu Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-05-01
Series:Geoscience Frontiers
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987120302644
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author Long Chen
Yong-Fei Zheng
Zheng Xu
Zi-Fu Zhao
author_facet Long Chen
Yong-Fei Zheng
Zheng Xu
Zi-Fu Zhao
author_sort Long Chen
collection DOAJ
description Continental crust in average exhibits a similar composition in both major and trace elements to andesites along active continental margins. For this reason, andesitic magmatism above oceanic subduction zones is considered to have played a key role in the generation of continental crust along convergent plate boundaries. With respect to the origin of andesites themselves, however, there is still a hot debate on how they have acquired their geochemcial compositions. The debate is mainly centralized on the relative contributions of crustal contamination, magma differentiation and source mixing, which reaches an impasse in the past decades. The essential reason for this kind of debates is that these three mechanisms only can account for some of the geochemical observations for andesites, leading to insufficient discrimination among them. Nevertheless, the geochemical features of andesites are primarily controled from early to late by the composition of their source rocks in addition to partial melting and magma differentiation processes. If source mixing and partial melting processes in the early stage of andesite magmatism can account for the first-order geochemical features of andesites, there is no need to invoke the late processes of magma differentiation and crustal contamination for andesite petrogenesis. This is illustrated by quantitative forward modeling of the geochemical data for Quaternary andesites from the Andean arc in South America based on an integrated interpretation of these data. The modeling has run with four steps from early to late: (1) dehydration of the subducting oceanic crust at forearc depths; (2) partial melting of the subducting terrigenous sediment and altered oceanic basalt at subarc depths to produce hydrous felsic melts; (3) the generation of basaltic metasomatites (e.g., Si-excess pyroxenite) in the mantle wedge through reaction of the mantle wedge peridotite with large amounts of the hydrous felsic melts; (4) the production of andesitic melts by partial melting of the basaltic metasomatites. The results not only testify the hypothesis that the trace element and radiogenic isotope compositions of andesites can be directly produced by the source mixing and mantle melting but also demonstrate that partial melting of the basaltic metasomatites can reproduce the lithochemical composition of andesites. The compositional variations of Andean andesites within a single volcanic zone and among different volcanic zones can be explained by incorporating different amounts of heterogeneous hydrous felsic melts into their mantle sources, followed by different degree of partial melting under different pressures and temperatures. Therefore, the source mixing and partial melting processes at subarc depths can account for the first-order geochemical features of Andean andesites. In this regard, it may be not necessary for andesite petrogenesis to invoke the significant contributions from the processes of magma differentiation and crustal contamination.
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spelling doaj.art-1a064202cda242d090d57a4a8e67bdd82023-09-03T11:29:58ZengElsevierGeoscience Frontiers1674-98712021-05-01123101124Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesitesLong Chen0Yong-Fei Zheng1Zheng Xu2Zi-Fu Zhao3CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei 230026, China; Corresponding author at: CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei 230026, ChinaCAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, ChinaCAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei 230026, ChinaContinental crust in average exhibits a similar composition in both major and trace elements to andesites along active continental margins. For this reason, andesitic magmatism above oceanic subduction zones is considered to have played a key role in the generation of continental crust along convergent plate boundaries. With respect to the origin of andesites themselves, however, there is still a hot debate on how they have acquired their geochemcial compositions. The debate is mainly centralized on the relative contributions of crustal contamination, magma differentiation and source mixing, which reaches an impasse in the past decades. The essential reason for this kind of debates is that these three mechanisms only can account for some of the geochemical observations for andesites, leading to insufficient discrimination among them. Nevertheless, the geochemical features of andesites are primarily controled from early to late by the composition of their source rocks in addition to partial melting and magma differentiation processes. If source mixing and partial melting processes in the early stage of andesite magmatism can account for the first-order geochemical features of andesites, there is no need to invoke the late processes of magma differentiation and crustal contamination for andesite petrogenesis. This is illustrated by quantitative forward modeling of the geochemical data for Quaternary andesites from the Andean arc in South America based on an integrated interpretation of these data. The modeling has run with four steps from early to late: (1) dehydration of the subducting oceanic crust at forearc depths; (2) partial melting of the subducting terrigenous sediment and altered oceanic basalt at subarc depths to produce hydrous felsic melts; (3) the generation of basaltic metasomatites (e.g., Si-excess pyroxenite) in the mantle wedge through reaction of the mantle wedge peridotite with large amounts of the hydrous felsic melts; (4) the production of andesitic melts by partial melting of the basaltic metasomatites. The results not only testify the hypothesis that the trace element and radiogenic isotope compositions of andesites can be directly produced by the source mixing and mantle melting but also demonstrate that partial melting of the basaltic metasomatites can reproduce the lithochemical composition of andesites. The compositional variations of Andean andesites within a single volcanic zone and among different volcanic zones can be explained by incorporating different amounts of heterogeneous hydrous felsic melts into their mantle sources, followed by different degree of partial melting under different pressures and temperatures. Therefore, the source mixing and partial melting processes at subarc depths can account for the first-order geochemical features of Andean andesites. In this regard, it may be not necessary for andesite petrogenesis to invoke the significant contributions from the processes of magma differentiation and crustal contamination.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987120302644Andean arcAndesiteMagma differentiationSource mixingCrust-mantle interaction
spellingShingle Long Chen
Yong-Fei Zheng
Zheng Xu
Zi-Fu Zhao
Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites
Geoscience Frontiers
Andean arc
Andesite
Magma differentiation
Source mixing
Crust-mantle interaction
title Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites
title_full Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites
title_fullStr Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites
title_full_unstemmed Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites
title_short Generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge: Insight from quantitative study of Andean andesites
title_sort generation of andesite through partial melting of basaltic metasomatites in the mantle wedge insight from quantitative study of andean andesites
topic Andean arc
Andesite
Magma differentiation
Source mixing
Crust-mantle interaction
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987120302644
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AT yongfeizheng generationofandesitethroughpartialmeltingofbasalticmetasomatitesinthemantlewedgeinsightfromquantitativestudyofandeanandesites
AT zhengxu generationofandesitethroughpartialmeltingofbasalticmetasomatitesinthemantlewedgeinsightfromquantitativestudyofandeanandesites
AT zifuzhao generationofandesitethroughpartialmeltingofbasalticmetasomatitesinthemantlewedgeinsightfromquantitativestudyofandeanandesites