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Mantle Melting and Origin of Basaltic Magma

This document discusses mantle melting and the origin of basaltic magmas. It describes how mantle material can melt through increases in temperature, decreases in pressure, and the addition of volatiles like water. Tholeiitic basalts are generated at mid-ocean ridges through decompression melting as tectonic plates separate. Alkaline basalts are generated at ocean islands, also sometimes at subduction zones. Samples provide evidence that the mantle is composed of fertile lherzolite and more refractory dunite and harzburgite residues. Basalt compositions depend on variables like temperature, pressure, and degree of melting, with shallower melting under less pressure producing tholeiites and deeper or smaller-scale

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Irasydha Humaira
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90 views8 pages

Mantle Melting and Origin of Basaltic Magma

This document discusses mantle melting and the origin of basaltic magmas. It describes how mantle material can melt through increases in temperature, decreases in pressure, and the addition of volatiles like water. Tholeiitic basalts are generated at mid-ocean ridges through decompression melting as tectonic plates separate. Alkaline basalts are generated at ocean islands, also sometimes at subduction zones. Samples provide evidence that the mantle is composed of fertile lherzolite and more refractory dunite and harzburgite residues. Basalt compositions depend on variables like temperature, pressure, and degree of melting, with shallower melting under less pressure producing tholeiites and deeper or smaller-scale

Uploaded by

Irasydha Humaira
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Lecture 18 - Mantle Melting

Monday, 28th, March, 2005

Mantle Melting
and
Origin of Basaltic Magma

Two principal types of basalt


in the ocean basins
Tholeiitic Basalt and Alkaline Basalt
Table 10-1

Common petrographic differences between tholeiitic and alkaline basalts


Tholeiitic Basalt

Usually fine-grained, intergranular


Groundmass

No olivine

Olivine common

Clinopyroxene = augite (plus possibly pigeonite)

Titaniferous augite (reddish)

Orthopyroxene (hypersthene) common, may rim ol.

Orthopyroxene absent

No alkali feldspar

Interstitial alkali feldspar or feldspathoid may occur

Interstitial glass and/or quartz common

Interstitial glass rare, and quartz absent

Olivine rare, unzoned, and may be partially resorbed

Phenocrysts

Alkaline Basalt
Usually fairly coarse, intergranular to ophitic

Olivine common and zoned

or show reaction rims of orthopyroxene


Orthopyroxene uncommon

Orthopyroxene absent

Early plagioclase common

Plagioclase less common, and later in sequence

Clinopyroxene is pale brown augite

Clinopyroxene is titaniferous augite, reddish rims

after Hughes (1982) and McBirney (1993).

Each is chemically distinct


Evolve via FX as separate series
along different paths

Tholeiites are generated at mid-ocean ridges


Also generated at oceanic islands,
subduction zones
Alkaline basalts generated at ocean islands
Also at subduction zones

Sources of mantle material

Ophiolites
Slabs of oceanic crust and upper mantle
Thrust at subduction zones onto edge of continent

Dredge samples from oceanic fracture zones


Nodules and xenoliths in some basalts
Kimberlite xenoliths

Diamond-bearing pipes blasted up from the


mantle carrying numerous xenoliths from depth

Lherzolite is probably fertile unaltered mantle


Dunite and harzburgite are refractory residuum after basalt has been
extracted by partial melting
Tholeiitic basalt

Wt.% Al2O3

15

Figure 10-1 Brown and Mussett,


A. E. (1993), The Inaccessible
Earth: An Integrated View of Its
Structure and Composition.
Chapman & Hall/Kluwer.

10

r
Pa

g
t in
el
M
l
tia

Lherzolite

Harzburgite
Dunite

0
0.0

0.2

Residuum
0.4

0.6

0.8

Wt.% TiO2

Lherzolite: A type of peridotite


with Olivine > Opx + Cpx
Olivine
Dunite

Peridotites

We
hr

Lherzolite

lite

Ha
rzb
urg
ite

90

40

Pyroxenites

Olivine Websterite

Orthopyroxenite

10

Websterite
Clinopyroxenite

10

Orthopyroxene

Clinopyroxene

Figure 2-2 C After IUGS

Phase diagram for aluminous


4-phase lherzolite:
Al-phase =

Plagioclase

Spinel

50-80 km

Garnet

shallow (< 50 km)

80-400 km

Si VI coord.

> 400 km
Figure 10-2 Phase diagram of aluminous lherzolite with melting interval (gray), sub-solidus
reactions, and geothermal gradient. After Wyllie, P. J. (1981). Geol. Rundsch. 70, 128-153.

How does the mantle melt??


1) Increase the temperature

Figure 10-3. Melting by raising the temperature.

2) Lower the pressure


Adiabatic rise of mantle with no conductive heat loss
Decompression melting could melt at least 30%

Figure 10-4. Melting by (adiabatic) pressure reduction. Melting begins when the adiabat crosses the
solidus and traverses the shaded melting interval. Dashed lines represent approximate % melting.

3) Add volatiles (especially H2O)

Figure 10-4. Dry peridotite solidus compared to several experiments on H2O-saturated peridotites.

Heating of amphibole-bearing peridotite


1) Ocean geotherm
2) Shield geotherm

Figure 10-6 Phase diagram (partly


schematic) for a hydrous mantle system,
including the H2O-saturated lherzolite
solidus of Kushiro et al. (1968), the
dehydration breakdown curves for
amphibole (Millhollen et al., 1974) and
phlogopite (Modreski and Boettcher, 1973),
plus the ocean and shield geotherms of
Clark and Ringwood (1964) and Ringwood
(1966). After Wyllie (1979). In H. S. Yoder
(ed.), The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks.
Fiftieth Anniversary Perspectives.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J,
pp. 483-520.

Melts can be created under


realistic circumstances

Plates separate and mantle rises at mid-ocean


ridges
Adibatic rise decompression melting
Hot spots localized upwelling mantle plumes
Fluid fluxing may give Low Velocity Zone
Also important in subduction zones

Generation of tholeiitic and


alkaline basalts from a
chemically uniform mantle
Variables (other than X)
Temperature
Pressure

Figure 10-2 Phase diagram of aluminous lherzolite


with melting interval (gray), sub-solidus reactions, and
geothermal gradient. After Wyllie, P. J. (1981). Geol.
Rundsch. 70, 128-153.

Effects of Pressure on Melting Lherzolite


Preliminary Conclusions
Shallow melting (<30 km)
produces tholeiites
Extensive melting (>10%)
favors tholeiites and picrites
Small amounts of melting
produces alkali basalts
Deeper melting favors alkali
basalts (unless melting is
extensive)

b)
ure (k
Press

Data from Kushiro (1996)

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