High water content in primitive continental flood basalts.

Abstract

As the main constituent of large igneous provinces, the generation of continental flood basalts (CFB) that are characterized by huge eruption volume (>105 km3) within short time span (<1–3 Ma) is in principle caused by an abnormally high temperature, extended decompression, a certain amount of mafic source rocks (e.g., pyroxenite), or an elevated H2O content in the mantle source. These four factors are not mutually exclusive. There are growing evidences for high temperature, decompression and mafic source rocks, albeit with hot debate. However, there is currently no convincing evidence of high water content in the source of CFB. We retrieved the initial H2O content of the primitive CFB in the early Permian Tarim large igneous province (NW China), using the H2O content of ten early-formed clinopyroxene (cpx) crystals that recorded the composition of the primitive Tarim basaltic melts and the partition coefficient of H2O between cpx and basaltic melt. The arc-like H2O content (4.82 ± 1.00 wt.%) provides the first clear evidence that H2O plays an important role in the generation of CFB.