Magmatic implications of mantle wedge plumes: Experimental study

Numerical and laboratory experiments beside natural observations suggest that hydration and partial melting along the subducting slab can trigger Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities that evolve into partially molten diapiric structures (“cold plumes”) that rise through the hot asthenospheric wedge. Mixed cold plumes composed of tectonic melanges derived from subduction channels can transport the fertile subducted crustal materials towards hotter zones of the suprasubduction mantle wedge leading to the formation of silicic melts. We investigate magmatic consequences of this plausible geodynamic scenario by using an experimental approach. Melt compositions, fertility and reaction between silicic melts and the peridotite mantle (both hydrous and dry) were tested by means of piston–cylinder experiments at conditions of 1000°C and pressures of 2.0 and 2.5GPa. The results indicate that silicic melts of trondhjemite and granodiorite compositions may be produced in the ascending mixed plume megastructures. Our experiments show that the formation of an Opx-rich reaction band, developed at the contact between the silicic melts and the peridotite, protect silicic melts from further reaction in contrast to the classical view that silicic melts are completely consumed in the mantle. The mixed, mantle-crust isotopic signatures which are characteristic of many calc-alkaline batholiths are also expected from this petrogenetic scenario.