Behavior of fluid-mobile elements in serpentines from abyssal to subduction environments: Examples from Cuba and Dominican Republic

Abstract

Serpentinites from subduction environments represent an important sink for fluid-mobile elements. In order to constrain geochemical behavior of fluid-mobile elements hosted by serpentine phases during subduction processes, we carried out a geochemical study (trace elements and Pb isotopes) of a series of serpentinites and cumulates from the accretionary wedge of Greater Caribbean (Cuba and Dominican Republic). The trace element compositions of the primary and alteration-related phases were analyzed in situ using LA–HR-ICP-MS techniques. The studied samples represent parts of the subducted proto-Atlantic oceanic lithosphere, which has experienced low to high grade metamorphism (greenschist to eclogite facies), before being exhumed; a subset of these samples were derived from the mantle wedge. This sampling provides the opportunity to trace the chemical mobility of fluid-mobile elements during prograde metamorphism along a cold geotherm in an oceanic subduction setting.Serpentinites display strong enrichment in fluid-mobile elements indicating extensive fluid–rock interaction. In situ analyses allow distinction of three types of serpentines related to the nature of primary minerals (olivine, ortho- or clinopyroxene). Compositions of subducted samples, especially in fluid-mobile elements, are relatively close to those of abyssal peridotites without noticeable evidence of mobility for trace elements during subduction-related prograde metamorphism, with the exception of B. This confirms that the observed enrichment results from seawater/peridotite interactions during residence time in the ocean. It also suggests that most mobile elements stored in serpentine minerals are immobile during subduction processes. A major consequence of this observation is that serpentine minerals are a good sink for mobile elements in subduction zones, until their dehydration. Additionally, Pb isotopes and over-enrichment in As–Sb in high-grade subducted serpentines (antigorite) suggest the contribution of a sedimentary component during a secondary hydration taking place at the lizardite/antigorite transition. We propose that this new serpentinization event, taking place at greater depth, results from mixing between sediments and serpentinites in the subduction channel.Mantle wedge serpentinites present imprints of hydrothermal fluids: they are B-rich but without strong enrichment in As and Sb, and show evidence for moderate contributions of a radiogenic Pb-component. This suggests that the fluids that produced the mantle wedge serpentinites derived from the dehydration of the oceanic crust, with moderate to no contribution of sediments. We posit that mantle wedge serpentinization took place around 20–25km depth: at such depth and temperature conditions (T>200°C), the subducted sediments still released their B-rich pore fluids while their structural water incorporated in hydrous minerals (phengite, lawsonite) remained stable. The existence of various potential reservoirs for fluid-mobile elements in subduction zone environments (subducted serpentinites, mantle wedge serpentinites, as well as subducted sediments and altered oceanic crust) that potentially release their fluids at different depths has strong implications for arc lava formation.