scholarly journals Long-lasting influence of the Discovery plume on tholeiitic magmatism in the South Atlantic: data on basalts recovered by hole 513a, dsdp leg 71

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-127
Author(s):  
N. M. Sushchevskaya ◽  
T. A. Shishkina ◽  
M. V. Portnyagin ◽  
V. G. Batanova ◽  
B. V. Belyatsky

The paper presents the very first data on concentrations of major and trace elements; Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic ratios of rocks; and the composition of olivine phenocrysts of 38-Ma basalts recovered by Hole 513a (DSDP Leg 71) in the South Atlantic. The bulk-rock samples and the chilled glasses are mildly magnesian (7–8 wt % MgO) and bear elevated FeO and low Na2O concentrations, as is typical of MORB of the TOR-1 type. Olivine phenocrysts (Fo84.5–88) in these rocks contain concentrations of trace elements (Ni, Mn, Cr, and Zn) that are typical of classic MORB, which are produced by partial melting mantle peridotite. The rocks are strongly depleted in incompatible elements [(La/Sm)n ~ 0.6] but have elevated Ba/Nb, K/Nb, and Pb/Ce ratios and Cu, Ag, and Au concentrations that are 1.5–4 times higher than in typical depleted MORB (N-MORB) and in most rift basalts in the South Atlantic. Isotope compositions of the basalts (average ratios 206Pb/204Pb ~ 18.0; 207Pb/204Pb ~ 15.6, 208Pb/204Pb ~ 38.0, 143Nd/144 Nd ~ 0.5130, and 87Sr/86Sr ~ 0.7040) are close to those in modern tholeiites from the southern MAR segment (SMAR) north of the Agulhas Fracture Zone. The data indicate that the magmas were derived from a strongly depleted mantle source that contained a minor (~3%) admixture of an enriched component, which is discernible in the magmas of the Discovery hotspot. The composition of the source, which is more depleted than DM, and the high degrees of melting of this source explain why the basalts from DSDP Hole 513a are enriched in chalcophile elements. It is believed that spreading magmatism at 45°–48° S in SMAR as far back as 40 Ma was already affected by the Discovery hotspot. This hotspot might be related to the Tristan plume system, and its origin and long-lasting influence on spreading magmatism in the South Atlantic are regarded as evidence of the extensive effect of the Tristan plume.

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-133
Author(s):  
N. M. Sushchevskaya ◽  
T. A. Shishkina ◽  
M. V. Portnyagin ◽  
V. G. Batanova ◽  
B. V. Belyatsky

2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (5) ◽  
pp. 583-587
Author(s):  
A. M. Agashev

The paper presents the results of major and trace elements composition study of garnet megacrysts from Mir kimberlite pipe. On the major elements composition those garnets classified as low Cr and high Ti pyropes. Concentrations of TiO2 show a negative correlation with MgO и Cr2O3 contents in megacrysts composition. Fractional crystallization modeling indicates that the most appropriate melt to reproduce the garnet trace elements signatures is the melt of picritic composition. Composition of garnets crystallized from kimberlite melt do not correspond to observed natural garnets composition. Kimberlites contain less of Ti, Zr, Y and heavy REE (rare earth elements) but more of very incompatible elements such as light REE, Th, U, Nb, Ba then the model melt composition that necessary for garnet crystallization.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Te Hsieh ◽  
Walter Geibert ◽  
E. Malcolm S. Woodward ◽  
Neil J. Wyatt ◽  
Maeve C. Lohan ◽  
...  

Abstract. Trace elements play important roles as micronutrients in modulating marine productivity in the global ocean. The South Atlantic around 40° S is a prominent region of high productivity and a transition zone between the nitrate-depleted Subtropical Gyre and the iron-limited Southern Ocean. However, the sources and fluxes of trace elements to this region remain unclear. In this study, the distribution of the naturally occurring radioisotope 228Ra in the water column of the South Atlantic (Cape Basin and Argentine Basin) has been investigated along a 40° S zonal transect to estimate ocean mixing and trace element supply to the surface ocean. Ra-228 profiles have been used to determine the horizontal and vertical mixing rates in the near-surface open ocean. In the Argentine Basin, horizontal mixing from the continental shelf to the open ocean shows an eddy diffusion of Kx = 1.7 ± 1.4 (106 cm2 s−1) and an integrated advection velocity w = 0.6 ± 0.3 cm s−1. In the Cape Basin, horizontal mixing is Kx = 2.7 ± 0.8 (107 cm2 s−1) and vertical mixing Kz = 1.0–1.5 cm2 s−1 in the upper 600 m layer. Three different approaches (228Ra-diffusion, 228Ra-advection and 228Ra/TE-ratio) have been applied to estimate the dissolved trace-element fluxes from shelf to open ocean. These approaches bracket the possible range of off-shelf fluxes from the Argentine margin to be: 3.8–22 (× 103) nmol Co m−2 d−1, 7.9–20 (× 104) nmol Fe m−2 d−1 and 2.7–6.5 (× 104) nmol Zn m−2 d−1. Off-shelf fluxes from the Cape margin are: 4.3–6.2 (× 103) nmol Co m−2 d−1, 1.2–3.1 (× 104) nmol Fe m−2 d−1 and 0.9–1.2 (× 104) nmol Zn m−2 d−1. On average, at 40° S in the Atlantic, vertical mixing supplies 0.4–1.2 nmol Co m−2 d−1, 3.6–11 nmol Fe m−2 d−1, and 13–16 nmol Zn m−2 d−1 to the euphotic zone. Compared with atmospheric dust and continental shelf inputs, vertical mixing is a more important source for supplying dissolved trace elements to the surface 40° S Atlantic. It is insufficient, however, to provide the trace elements removed by biological uptake. Other inputs (e.g. particulate, or from winter deep-mixing) are required to balance the trace element budgets in this region.


1987 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. B. Henderson ◽  
F. G. F. Gibb

ABSTRACTA 49 m complete section through the 288 Ma Lugar Sill obtained from drill cores can be subdivided into nine units. The uppermost four units are teschenitic and are mirror images of the bottom four. A 35 m thick central unit consists of theralite passing down into kaersutite theralite and then picrite. Marginal chilling 'of the units indicates multiple intrusion from the outside inwards. Olivine in the central unit (Fo88–90) encloses Cr-rich spinels and increases in amount inwards to over 50%. Clinopyroxene, kaersutite and biotite show symmetrically increasing Fe/Mg from the centre of the sill outwards. Most major and trace elements vary symmetrically throughout the sill with those in the central unit reflecting mainly olivine distribution but incompatible elements exhibit upward enrichment. Remarkably, the most-evolved rocks in the sill are at its margins. The sill was formed by multiple injections of successively less-evolved teschenitic magmas followed by a larger pulse of theralitic liquid carrying abundant olivine phenocrysts. The amount of olivine in this final pulse increased during emplacement. Subsequent in-situ differentiation in the central unit, with upward enrichment in residual liquid and volatiles, gave rise to lugarites. The various magmas were produced in a lower-level magma chamber by differentiation of a mantle-derived, alkali-rich picritic magma.


The early major products of Tertiary volcanicity in both Skye and Mull are transitional basic lavas, similar in their major-element chemistry to world-wide alkali basalt series. In contrast, their contents of incompatible trace elements bear more resemblance to those of olivine tholeiites. The Mull basalts have similar ranges of silica saturation, Mg/(Mg+Fe), Y and Yb, but lower overall abundance ranges of strongly incompatible elements than the Skye basalts. The variation of incompatible elements in the Mull and Skye lavas is consistent with a model of a mantle source from which a small amount of melt (no more than 1 % ?) had been extracted, with the pre-Tertiary upper-mantle fusion beneath Mull slightly greater than beneath Skye. Chemical and tectonic considerations suggest that this mantle was neither residual from the formation of the Archaean Lewisian complex, nor emplaced as a result of tension associated with the Gainozoic rifting of the North Atlantic. Data on major and trace elements for a mafic alkalic dyke of the Permian swarms that pass through western Scotland show that these have the requisite geochemical characteristics to have caused this depletion. Such dykes are more abundant in the region of Mull than Skye.


2004 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. M. BURNS ◽  
M. B. FOWLER ◽  
R. A. STRACHAN ◽  
P. B. GREENWOOD

The Strathy Complex of the Scottish Caledonides is a bimodal association of amphibolites and siliceous grey gneisses that structurally underlies adjacent metasediments of the Moine Supergroup. Both rock units record a common polyphase Caledonian tectonometamorphic history. New elemental and radiogenic isotope data indicate that both end-members of the Strathy suite were derived from a depleted mantle source, that they are cogenetic and that they may have been related by crystal fractionation. δ18O values and their correlations with major and trace elements suggest that the protoliths were hydrothermally altered at temperatures below 200 °C. Tectonomagmatic discrimination based on relatively immobile elements and isotope systems, plus comparison with geochemically similar bimodal supracrustal associations elsewhere, strongly support the conclusion that the igneous protoliths of the Strathy Complex formed in an oceanic destructive margin setting. If TDM model ages of c. 1000 Ma approximate protolith crystallization, the Strathy Complex may have formed as juvenile crust in the peri-Rodinian ocean broadly contemporaneous with the Grenville orogenic cycle.


Solid Earth ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. F. Davies

Abstract. The reconciliation of mantle chemistry with the structure of the mantle inferred from geophysics and dynamical modelling has been a long-standing problem. This paper reviews three main aspects. First, extensions and refinements of dynamical modelling and theory of mantle processing over the past decade. Second, a recent reconsideration of the implications of mantle heterogeneity for melting, melt migration, mantle differentiation and mantle segregation. Third, a recent proposed shift in the primitive chemical baseline of the mantle inferred from observations of non-chondritic 142Nd in the Earth. It seems most issues can now be resolved, except the level of heating required to maintain the mantle's thermal evolution. A reconciliation of refractory trace elements and their isotopes with the dynamical mantle, proposed and given preliminary quantification by Hofmann, White and Christensen, has been strengthened by work over the past decade. The apparent age of lead isotopes and the broad refractory-element differences among and between ocean island basalts (OIBs) and mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs) can now be quantitatively accounted for with some assurance. The association of the least radiogenic helium with relatively depleted sources and their location in the mantle have been enigmatic. The least radiogenic helium samples have recently been recognised as matching the proposed non-chondritic primitive mantle. It has also been proposed recently that noble gases reside in a so-called hybrid pyroxenite assemblage that is the result of melt from fusible pods reacting with surrounding refractory peridotite and refreezing. Hybrid pyroxenite that is off-axis may not remelt and erupt at MORs, so its volatile constituents would recirculate within the mantle. Hybrid pyroxenite is likely to be denser than average mantle, and thus some would tend to settle in the D" zone at the base of the mantle, along with some old subducted oceanic crust. Residence times in D" are longer, so the hybrid pyroxenite there would be less degassed. Plumes would sample both the degassed, enriched old oceanic crust and the gassy, less enriched hybrid pyroxenite and deliver them to OIBs. These findings can account quantitatively for the main He, Ne and Ar isotopic observations. It has been commonly inferred that the MORB source is strongly depleted of incompatible elements. However it has recently been argued that conventional estimates of the MORB source composition fail to take full account of mantle heterogeneity, and in particular focus on an ill-defined "depleted" mantle component while neglecting less common enriched components. Previous estimates have also been tied to the composition of peridotites, but these probably do not reflect the full complement of incompatible elements in the heterogeneous mantle. New estimates that account for enriched mantle components suggest the MORB source complement of incompatibles could be as much as 50–100 % larger than previous estimates. A major difficulty has been the inference that mass balances of incompatible trace elements could only be satisfied if there is a deep enriched layer in the mantle, but the Earth's topography precludes such a layer. The difficulty might be resolved if either the Earth is depleted relative to chondritic or the MORB source is less depleted than previous estimates. Together these factors can certainly resolve the mass balance difficulties.


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