Hydration and dehydration in the lower margin of a cold mantle wedge: implications for crust–mantle interactions and petrogeneses of arc magmas

Abstract

Garnet orthopyroxenites from Maowu (Dabieshan orogen, eastern China) were formed from a refractory harzburgite/dunite protolith. They preserve mineralogical and geochemical evidence of hydration/metasomatism and dehydration at the lower edge of a cold mantle wedge. Abundant polyphase inclusions in the cores of garnet porphyroblasts record the earliest metamorphism and metasomatism in garnet orthopyroxenites. They are mainly composed of pargasitic amphibole, gedrite, chlorite, talc, phlogopite, and Cl-apatite, with minor anhydrous minerals such as orthopyroxene, sapphirine, spinel, and rutile. Most of these phases have high XMg, NiO, and Ni/Mg values, implying that they probably inherited the chemistry of pre-existing olivine. Trace element analyses indicate that polyphase inclusions are enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE), light rare earth elements (LREE), and high field strength elements (HFSE), with spikes of Ba, Pb, U, and high U/Th. Based on the P–T conditions of formation for the polyphase inclusions (˜1.4 GPa, 720–850°C), we suggest that the protolith likely underwent significant hydration/metasomatism by slab-derived fluid under shallow–wet–cold mantle wedge corner conditions beneath the forearc. When the hydrated rocks were subducted into a deep–cold mantle wedge zone and underwent high-pressure–ultrahigh-pressure (HP–UHP) metamorphism, amphibole, talc, and chlorite dehydrated and garnet, orthopyroxene, Ti-chondrodite, and Ti-clinohumite formed during prograde metamorphism. The majority of LILE (e.g. Ba, U, Pb, Sr, and Th) and LREE were released into the fluid formed by dehydration reactions, whereas HFSE (e.g. Ti, Nb, and Ta) remained in the cold mantle wedge lower margin. Such fluid resembling the trace element characteristics of arc magmas evidently migrates into the overlying, internal, hotter part of the mantle wedge, thus resulting in a high degree of partial melting and the formation of arc magmas.