Experimental diopsidite: Implications for natural diopsidite genesis through fluid-melt-mantle peridotite reaction

Abstract

Occurrences of diopsidites, rocks made predominantly of gem-like diopside whose composition precludes a purely igneous origin, allow tracking the pathway of high-temperature fluids and fluid-saturated melts in the oceanic lithosphere in vicinity of the mantle-crust transition zone (the Moho) and the adjacent mantle in an oceanic setting. We have experimentally explored the origin of the mantle diopsidites by reacting serpentinite with synthetic haplobasaltic glass (corresponding to anorthite-diopside eutectic at 0.1 MPa pressure) at 900 and 1250 °C, and 0.2 GPa pressure for 120 h. At 900 °C, no reaction is observed in the sample; in contrast, in the experimental runs heated to 1250 °C, we distinguish two mineral associations (1) early Al-poor diopside [Mg# = Mg/(Mg + Fe) = 99 ± 1; Al2O3 = 1.9 ± 1.6 wt%] with the diopside-hosted forsterite (Fo99.2 ± 0.1) inclusions and (2) late Al-enriched diopside (Mg# = 98 ± 1; Al2O3 = 3.7 ± 2.8 wt%). Our experiments confirm that mantle diopsidites can be produced at ≥ 1100 °C in response to partial melting of hydrated peridotite (serpentinite) in the presence of haplobasaltic melt and aqueous fluid at the conditions typical of the mantle-crust transition zone and the shallow mantle beneath oceanic spreading ridges.