scholarly journals Subduction sediment-lherzolite interaction at 2.9 GPa: effects of metasomatism and partial melting

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 503-524
Author(s):  
A. L. Perchuk ◽  
A A. Serdyuk ◽  
N. G. Zinovievа

We present the results of analogue experiments carried out in a piston–cylinder apparatus at 750–900°C and 2.9 GPa aimed to simulate metasomatic transformation of the fertile mantle caused by fluids and melts released from the subducting sediment. A synthetic H2O- and CO2-bearing mixture that corresponds to the average subducting sediment (GLOSS, Plank, Langmuir, 1998) and mineral fractions of natural lherzolite (analogue of a mantle wedge) were used as starting materials. Experiments demonstrate that the mineral growth in capsules is controlled by ascending fluid and hydrous melt (from 850°C) flows. Migration of the liquids and dissolved components develops three horizontal zones in the sedimentary layer with different mineral parageneses that slightly changed from run to run. In the general case, however, the contents of omphacite and garnet increase towards the upper boundary of the layer. Magnesite and omphacite (± garnet ± melt ± kyanite ± phengite) are widespread in the central zone of the sedimentary layer, whereas SiO2 polymorph (± kyanite ± phengite ± biotite ± omphacite ± melt) occurs in the lower zone. Clinopyroxene disappears at the base of lherzolite layer and the initial olivine is partially replaced by orthopyroxene (± magnesite) in all experiments. In addition, talc is formed in this zone at 750°C, whereas melt appears at 850°C. In the remaining volume of the lherzolite layer, metasomatic transformations affect only grain boundaries where orthopyroxene (± melt ± carbonate) is developed. The described transformations are mainly related to a pervasive flow of liquids. Mineral growth in the narrow wall sides of the capsules is probably caused by a focused flow: omphacite grows up in the sedimentary layer, and talc or omphacite with the melt grow up in the lherzolite layer. Experiments show that metasomatism of peridotite related to a subducting sediment, unlike the metasomatism related to metabasites, does not lead to the formation of garnet-bearing paragenesis. In addition, uprising liquid flows (fluid, melt) do not remove significant amounts of carbon from the metasedimentary layer to the peridotite layer. It is assumed that either more powerful fluxes of aqueous fluid or migration of carbonate-bearing rocks in subduction melanges are necessary for more efficient transfer of crustal carbon from metasediments to a mantle in subduction zones.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Tiraboschi ◽  
Carmen Sanchez-Valle

<p>In subduction zones, aqueous fluids derived from devolatilization processes of the oceanic lithosphere and its sedimentary cover, are major vectors of mass transfer from the slab to the mantle wedge and contribute to the recycling of elements and to their geochemical cycles. In this setting, assessing the mobility of redox sensitive elements, such as iron, can provide useful insights on the oxygen fugacity conditions of slab-derived fluid. However, the amount of iron mobilized by deep aqueous fluids and melts, is still poorly constrained.</p><p>We experimentally investigate the solubility of magnetite-hematite assemblages in water-saturated haplogranitic liquids, which represent the felsic melt produced by subducted eclogites. Experiments were conducted at 1 GPa and temperature ranging from 700 to 900 °C employing a piston cylinder apparatus. Single gold capsules were loaded with natural hematite, magnetite and synthetic haplogranite (Na<sub>0.56</sub>K<sub>0.38</sub>Al<sub>0.95</sub>Si<sub>5.19</sub>O<sub>12.2</sub>). Two sets of experiments were conducted: one with H<sub>2</sub>O-only fluids and the second one adding a 1.5 m H<sub>2</sub>O–NaCl solution. The capsule was kept frozen during welding to ensure no water loss. After quench, the presence of H<sub>2</sub>O in the quenched haplogranite glass was checked by Raman spectroscopy, while major elements were determined by microprobe analysis.</p><p>Preliminary results indicate that a significant amount of Fe is released from magnetite and hematite in hydrous melts, even at relatively low-pressure conditions. At 1 GPa the FeO<sub>tot</sub> quenched in the haplogranite glass ranges from 0.60 wt% at 700 °C, to 1.87 wt% at 900 °C. In the presence of NaCl, we observed an increase in the amount of iron quenched in the glass (e.g., at 800 °C from 1.04 wt% to 1.56 wt% of FeO<sub>tot</sub>). Our results suggest that hydrous melts can effectively mobilize iron even at low-pressure conditions and represent a valid agent for the cycling of iron from the subducting slab to the mantle wedge.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Shen ◽  
Cong Zhang ◽  
Jing Chen ◽  
Jörg Hermann ◽  
Lifei Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract The unit-cell parameter a of antigorite (usually expressed as the polysome m value) has been determined as a function of temperature (T) and pressure (P) in the range of 600–650 °C, 25–45 kbar in weeklong piston-cylinder experiments. A well-characterized natural antigorite (with m = 16 and less abundant m = 15) was used as a starting material that coexisted with olivine, chlorite, Ti-humite, and aqueous fluid at run conditions. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) measurements on selected focused ion beam (FIB) wafers showed that antigorite m values after the experiments varied between 14 and 22. More than 40 punctual analyses for each run condition were acquired to determine the range and the primary m value. The most frequent antigorite m-value decreased systematically from 17–19 at 600 °C to 15–16 at 650 °C. The spacing of the m-isolines is getting narrower as the antigorite breakdown reaction is approached. The topology of the m-isolines is similar to that previously characterized for the simple MgO-SiO2-H2O (MSH) system. However, the isolines are shifted to about 50–100 °C higher temperatures due to the incorporation of Al into antigorite. Powder samples and FIB wafers of natural antigorite from the Tianshan UHP belt (China) with peak metamorphic conditions of ~35 kbar, ~520 °C were also investigated with TEM. Low Al-antigorite formed at peak metamorphic conditions displays a peak m value of 20–21, whereas high-Al antigorite formed during isothermal decompression displays a lower m value of 19. Combination of our results with the published data of m values from metamorphic antigorite that experienced various conditions allowed construction of a P-T-m diagram that can be used in future studies to better constrain formation conditions of serpentinites. The decrease of m values and the increase of Al in antigorite with increasing temperature result in small, continuous dehydration whereby the H2O content of antigorite changes from 12.4 to 12.1 wt%. Therefore, it is expected that a pore fluid is present during the prograde deformation of serpentinites. TEM observations showed that antigorite adjusted its Al content by segregation of chlorite at the nanoscale. Together with the observation that multiple m values are always present in a single sample, this result indicates that full equilibration of antigorite at the micrometer-scale is rare, with important implications for the interpretation of geochemical signatures obtained by in situ techniques.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine V. Putnis ◽  
Lijun Wang ◽  
Encarnación Ruiz-Agudo ◽  
Cristina Ruiz-Agudo ◽  
François Renard

<p>The advancement in analytical imaging techniques, including atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM), has allowed us to observe processes occurring at mineral surfaces in situ at a nanoscale in real space and time and hence giving the possibility to elucidate reaction mechanisms. Classical crystal growth theories have been established for well over 100 years and while they can still be applied to explain crystal growth in many growth scenarios, we now know that these models are not always an accurate description of the mechanism of all crystal/mineral growth processes, especially where nanoparticle formation is observed. Consequently there is a current challenge at the forefront of understanding crystal/mineral growth mechanisms. This work describes experimental observations of non-classical crystallization processes at the nanoscale. Using AFM as well as SEM and TEM imaging, we demonstrate that many minerals commonly grow by the attachment of nanoparticles on an existing mineral surface, often resulting from the coupling of dissolution of a parent phase and the precipitation of a new product mineral. Through varied examples of crystal/mineral growth, including calcite and other carbonates, barite, brucite, and apatite, we define the importance of the mineral-fluid interface and the aqueous fluid interfacial (boundary) layer in the control of crystal growth. Whether a crystal will grow by classical monomer attachment resulting in step advancement or by the formation, aggregation and merging of nanoparticles, will be controlled by the aqueous fluid composition at the mineral-fluid interface. The processes described also allow for the development of porosity within the new mineral and hence have important consequences for fluid movement and element mobility within the Earth. Additionally an understanding of natural mineral growth has implications for geomimetic applications for the manufacture of functional engineered materials.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Guo ◽  
Huaiwei Ni

<p><span>Water plays an important role in lowering melting temperature of rocks. The water-saturated solidus of rock is critical for understanding the magma generation and the dynamics of the Earth. There have been a lot of water-saturated solidi of rocks constrained by traditional quench method in literature. However, since both of the hydrous silicate melt and aqueous fluid can be quenched to glasses at high pressure, it is difficult to discriminate whether the quenched glasses were from melt or not. As a result, the water-saturated solidi of rocks from different studies may show significant discrepancy. One way to solve this problem is to detect the characteristics change of the rock system in situ, and electrical conductivity measurement is one of the good options. It is known that hydrous melt has much higher electrical conductivity than solid rock, and temperature is much more effective in enhancing melt electrical conductivity than that for aqueous fluid. Once the partial melting is triggered, the electrical conductivity of the water-saturated rock system may have remarkable increase if the hydrous melt is interconnected in the system. Accordingly, the abrupt change of electrical conductivity may mark the solidus temperature. In this study, we performed electrical conductivity measurement for the determination of water-saturated solidus of albite. We adopted albite as the starting material because its water-saturated solidus is well known, which can help to verify the accuracy our method, and its quenched products are not so controversial. The electrical conductivity measurements were carried out at four different pressures ranging from 0.35 GPa to 1.7 GPa in a 3/4″ piston cylinder apparatus with impedance spectroscopy. The obvious change of electrical conductivity was observed at solidus temperature within error, with increase of 1.8-0.18 log unit at 0.35-1.7 GPa. The results showed a stronger increase of conductivity at lower pressures, and fitted well with the water-saturated solidus of albite in literature. One defect of this method is the loss of water during experiment. The final water content in the system is about 1-2 wt%, comparing to the initial 10-15 wt% H<sub>2</sub>O. Nevertheless, the whole system is still water saturated, since water solubility in albite is fairly low. Therefore, if such a method can be improved to keep more water, it may be applied to other rocks to better constrain the water-saturated solidi in the future.</span></p><p> </p>


Lithos ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 162-163 ◽  
pp. 157-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan-Cai Li ◽  
Ren-Xu Chen ◽  
Yong-Fei Zheng ◽  
Qiuli Li ◽  
Zhaochu Hu

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Geeth Manthilake ◽  
Julien Chantel ◽  
Nicolas Guignot ◽  
Andrew King

Dehydration and fluid circulation are integral parts of subduction tectonics that govern the dynamics of the wedge mantle. The knowledge of the elastic behavior of aqueous fluid is crucial to understand the fluid–rock interactions in the mantle through velocity profiles. In this study, we investigated the elastic wave velocities of chlorite at high pressure beyond its dehydrating temperature, simulating the progressive dehydration of hydrous minerals in subduction zones. The dehydration resulted in an 8% increase in compressional (Vp) and a 5% decrease in shear wave (Vs) velocities at 950 K. The increase in Vp can be attributed to the stiffening of the sample due to the formation of secondary mineral phases followed by the dehydration of chlorite. The fluid-bearing samples exhibited Vp/Vs of 2.45 at 950 K. These seismic parameters are notably different from the major mantle minerals or hydrous silicate melts and provide unique seismic criteria for detecting mantle fluids through seismic tomography.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (30) ◽  
pp. E3997-E4006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. Kelemen ◽  
Craig E. Manning

Carbon fluxes in subduction zones can be better constrained by including new estimates of carbon concentration in subducting mantle peridotites, consideration of carbonate solubility in aqueous fluid along subduction geotherms, and diapirism of carbon-bearing metasediments. Whereas previous studies concluded that about half the subducting carbon is returned to the convecting mantle, we find that relatively little carbon may be recycled. If so, input from subduction zones into the overlying plate is larger than output from arc volcanoes plus diffuse venting, and substantial quantities of carbon are stored in the mantle lithosphere and crust. Also, if the subduction zone carbon cycle is nearly closed on time scales of 5–10 Ma, then the carbon content of the mantle lithosphere + crust + ocean + atmosphere must be increasing. Such an increase is consistent with inferences from noble gas data. Carbon in diamonds, which may have been recycled into the convecting mantle, is a small fraction of the global carbon inventory.


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