Element mobility from seafloor serpentinization to high-pressure dehydration of antigorite in subducted serpentinite: Insights from the Cerro del Almirez ultramafic massif (southern Spain)

Abstract

The Cerro del Almirez ultramafic massif is composed of antigorite serpentinite and chlorite harzburgite separated by a narrow transitional zone that marks the front of prograde serpentinite-dehydration at high pressure in a paleo-subduction setting. Concentrations of Sc and V indicate that the peridotite precursor of serpentinite experienced up to 20% partial melting in the spinel stability field at −2<Δlog fO2FMQ<0. Peridotites underwent intense seafloor serpentinization in a fluid-dominated system. Olivine hydrolysis at ~200°C and pyroxene serpentinization at >350–400°C remobilized Ca and REE (especially LREE and Eu) and caused the progressive enrichment of Cs, Rb, Ba, U and Pb and locally the crystallization of talc by silica fluid addition. Transformation to antigorite serpentinite upon subduction led to Sr depletion, and Ti, Tm, Yb and Lu were remobilized at the sample scale during fluid-assisted crystallization of titanian clinohumite. The high-pressure prograde breakdown of antigorite to chlorite harzburgite preserved the REE fractionations and the characteristic negative Eu anomaly of precursor serpentinites. Relative enrichment of Th–U–Nb–Ta–Pb–Sr in chlorite harzburgite cannot be balanced by closed-system dehydration of serpentinite indicating that dehydration occurred in an open system involving external fluids equilibrated with crustal sources, such as rodingites and/or metasediments. Prograde chlorite harzburgite acts as a sink of these elements during open-system fluid flux along pathways of fluid discharge in the subducted slab. This process results in the recycling into the deep convective asthenospheric mantle of prograde harzburgite enriched in Th, U, HFSE and Pb relatively to oceanic depleted peridotite. This signature and the preservation in dehydrated subducted serpentinite of negative Eu anomaly and C–O–H–S crustal-like isotopic compositions make prograde serpentinite a potential reservoir for the balance of the Earth's HFSE budget and a potential source for diamonds with a low-pressure inherited geochemical signature.