Experimental modeling of mantle metasomatism coupled with eclogitization of crustal material in a subduction zone

Abstract

Alteration of mantle wedge rocks under the influence of fluids and melts is a poorly known subduction-zone process. It was experimentally modeled using various materials analogous to the crust (glaucophane schist and amphibolite) and mantle (olivine and olivine + orthopyroxene) under the P-T conditions (800°C and 29 kbar) corresponding to a hot subduction zone. Schist or amphibolite was loaded into the lower part of a capsule and underwent partial (10–90%) eclogitization during the experiment with the formation of omphacite, garnet, and quartz, sometimes coexisting with Ca-Na amphibole and orthopyroxene. The eclogitization was accompanied by the release of aqueous fluid, which dissolved minerals and products of partial melting of the schist. Ascending fluid flows transported major components into the overlying peridotite. This resulted in the formation of a garnet-phlogopite-orthopyroxene reaction zone at the base of the peridotite layer; this zone accumulated Si and K, which was practically absent in the starting materials. The gain of Si, Al, and CO2 and loss of Mg resulted in the growth of new minerals in the olivine material: garnet, orthopyroxene, and magnesite. Under natural conditions, such a change would have been described as dunite transformation to garnet-bearing harzburgite. The experiments showed that the mineral and chemical composition of the suprasubduction mantle strongly depends on the transfer of components from a downgoing lithospheric slab.