Late Cenozoic high and low temperature magma generation from primordial and age-modified mantle materials beneath Dariganga in Southeast Mongolia: Factors of mantle degassing and adiabatic upwelling

Abstract

Representative sampling of the Dariganga volcanic field was conducted to decipher its inner structure in terms of its deep magma sources. Rocks with a high La/Yb ratio (40–54) and a high MgO content (11–15.8 wt%) are identified among the predominantly moderate La/Yb ratio (7–40) and a moderate MgO content (5–11 wt%) rocks. These rock markers, traced along linear volcanic zones, are considered as indicators of high and low temperature magma generation processes. A general agreement exists that partial melting predominated in the transitional asthenosphere–lithosphere region; however, between 10 and 5 Ma, these processes were complicated by melts that either adiabatically ascended from a residual slab source in the deep mantle at a high potential temperature (Тр = 1489°С) or were generated due to mantle fluid degassing at a low temperature or both these processes, simultaneously. Magmas were subsequently adiabatically upraised from an OIB-like source in the deep mantle with potential temperatures (Tp) of up to 1423°C and were also generated by mantle fluids at low temperature. The rock markers yield Pb-isotope age estimates of the proto-mantle (at 4.47 and 4.45 Ga) and the age-modified mantle (at 3.11 and 2.74 Ga) beneath Dariganga. In the last 16 Ma, encompassing the late geodynamic epoch of Earth's mantle, similar high and low temperature magmas have erupted across vast sections of the Japan-Baikal Geodynamic Corridor; these magmas are not reported from the adjacent Abaga and Dalinuoer areas, with the exception of the final (Holocene) fluid-derived compositions.