Helium isotope characteristics of Andean geothermal fluids and lavas

Abstract

The first comprehensive helium isotope survey of the Andes is reported here. We have sampled geothermal fluids and phyric lava flows from the Southern (svz) and Central (cvz) Volcanic Zones, the volcanically active Pun˜a region and the Precordillera, Salta Basin, Longitudinal Valley and the aseismic region between the two volcanic zones. Although the active areas are characterised by significant differences in crustal age and thickness, the svz, cvz and Pun˜a are characterised by a wide and overlapping range in 3He/ 4He ratios (for fluids and phenocrysts) from predominantly radiogenic values to close to the MORB ratio. The measured ranges in 3He/ 4He ratios ( R) (reported normalised to the air 3He/ 4He— R A) are: svz (0.18 < R/R A< 6.9); cvz (0.82 < R/R A< 6.0); and Pun˜a (1.8 < R/R A< 5.4). Modification of magmatic 3He/ 4He ratios by water/rock interactions (fluids) or post-eruptive grow-in of radiogenic 4He or preferential diffusive loss of 3He (phenocrysts) is considered unlikely; this means that the wide range reflects the helium isotope characteristics of magma bodies in the Andean crust. The mechanism controlling the 3He/ 4He ratios appears to be a mixing between mantle (MORB-like) helium and a radiogenic helium component derived from radioactive decay within the magma (magma aging) and/or interaction with 4He-rich country rock: a process expected to be influenced by pre-eruptive degassing of the mantle component. Assimilation of lower crust is also capable of modifying 3He/ 4He ratios, albeit to a much lesser extent. However, it is possible that the highest measured values in each zone were established by the addition of lower crustal radiogenic helium to MORB helium. In this case, the higher ‘base level’ ratios of the svz would reflect the younger crustal structure of this region. In contrast to helium, there is no overlap in the Sr or Pb isotope characteristics of lavas from the active zones: in all areas, therefore, 3He/ 4He ratios appear to vary independently of Sr and Pb isotope variations. This decoupling between the lithophile tracers and helium reflects the different processes controlling their isotopic characteristics: crust-mantle interactions, alone, for Sr and Pb but for helium the effects of pre-eruptive degassing and possibly magma aging are possibly superimposed. The presence of mantle helium in the Pun˜a region, and to a lesser extent in the Salta Basin, gives an across-arc perspective to the helium isotope distribution and shows mantle melting to occur significantly to the east of the active arc: this is most probably a consequence of lithospheric delamination. The Precordillera hot spring water has the only pure radiogenic helium signal of the entire sample suite and thus marks the western limit of asthenospheric mantle under the Andes.