Interaction between Subducted Oceanic Slab and Wedge Mantle Inferred from Across-arc Variations of Pb, Sr and Nd Isotopic Compositions in Northeastern Japan.

Abstract

Isotopic compositions of Pb, Sr and Nd have been determined for island arc basalts from northeastern Japan. The Sr and Pb isotopic ratios decrease, and Nd isotopic ratios increase from the volcanic front towards the back-arc side. The isotopic compo sition sat the most back-arc side are nearly identical to those of MORB, indicating that the across-arc isotopic variations were caused by a two-component mixing between MORB-type wedge mantle and oceanic sediments with different degrees of sediment involvement which depend on the depth of subducting oceanic slab. The abundance ratios among Pb, Sr and Nd in the subducted oceanic sediment were estimated from the mixing relationships in the isotope compositions. The estimated Sr/Pb ratio of subducted sediments does not change during subduction, while the Nd/Sr and Nd/Pb increase towards the back-arc side. These observations suggest that the subduction component was added to the wedge mantle as a fluid through the dehydration of subducted oceanic sediment and the degree of dehydration decreases with increase in the depth of slab, and that the subducting oceanic slab does not melt beneath northeastern Japan.