Boron isotope fractionation during oceanic-crust dehydration in subduction zones: boron coordination in omphacite

Abstract

Boron has two stable isotopes, 10B and 11B, which are strongly fractionated during geological processes. They have been widely used to trace fluids in subduction zones. The temperature-dependent equilibrium boron isotope fractionation depends on boron coordination in the B-hosting minerals and fluids. In blueschist- and eclogite-facies high-pressure metamorphic rocks, omphacite (Cpx), amphibole and white mica are the dominant hosts of B. Yet, different crystallographic mechanisms of B substitution in Cpx have been proposed with first-order implications for B isotope fractionation during slab dehydration and eclogite formation. Hence, clarification of B coordination in clinopyroxene is desired, but a direct determination of boron coordination in silicates at the trace-element level is not technically possible. In this study, we have thus determined the B coordination in omphacite, glaucophane and mica by indirect means through the investigation of the B isotope fractionation in natural rocks.We investigated a set of six different tourmaline-bearing reaction zone rocks from the high-pressure (HP) mélange on the island of Syros formed at approximately 0.7 GPa, 430 °C. The rocks show the paragenesis tourmaline + phengite + omphacite + glaucophane in textural equilibrium, which offers the opportunity to determine equilibrium B isotope fractionation among these minerals. The proportions of trigonally and tetrahedrally coordinated B in omphacite, glaucophane and phengite was then estimated from the respective boron isotope fractionation against tourmaline. The B isotope fractionation between phengite and tourmaline is -14.7 ±0.6 ‰, and -12.4 ±0.8 ‰ between omphacite and tourmaline. B isotope composition in omphacite is 2.5 ±1.6 ‰ heavier than in phengite. No significant difference was found between glaucophane and phengite. From these results, we conclude that boron in omphacite is dominantly in tetrahedral coordination (84 ±6 % of the total B) with a minor amount of B in trigonal coordination (16 ±6 %).