Evolution of the East Philippine Arc: experimental constraints on magmatic phase relations and adakitic melt formation

Abstract

Piston-cylinder experiments on a Pleistocene adakite from Mindanao in the Philippines have been used to establish near-liquidus and sub-liquidus phase relationships relevant to conditions in the East Philippines subduction zone. The experimental starting material belongs to a consanguineous suite of adakitic andesites. Experiments were conducted at pressures from 0.5 to 2 GPa and temperatures from 950 to 1,150°C. With 5 wt. % of dissolved H2O in the starting mix, garnet, clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene are liquidus phases at pressures above 1.5 GPa, whereas clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene are liquidus (or near-liquidus) phases at pressures 1.5 GPa) and subsequently involved the lower pressure fractionation of amphibole, plagioclase and subordinate clinopyroxene. Thus, the distinctive Y and HREE depletions of the andesitic adakites (which distinguish them from associated non-adakitic andesites) must be established relatively early in the fractionation process. Our experiments show that this early fractionation must have occurred at pressures >1.5 GPa and, thus, deeper than the Mindanao Moho. Published thermal models of the Philippine Sea Plate preclude a direct origin by melting of the subducting ocean crust. Thus, our results favour a model whereby basaltic arc melt underwent high-pressure crystal fractionation while stalled beneath immature arc lithosphere. This produced residual magma of adakitic character which underwent further fractionation at relatively low (i.e. crustal) pressures before being erupted.