Lithospheric modification by carbonatitic to alkaline melts and deep carbon cycle: Insights from peridotite xenoliths of eastern China

Abstract

Carbonates in subducting oceanic slabs can survive beyond slab dehydration and be transferred into the deep mantle. Such deep carbon cycling plays a critical role in generating carbonatitic to alkaline melts. However, whether and how this process has influenced the lithospheric mantle still remains enigmatic. To address these issues, here we provide a detailed petrographic, in-situ chemical and Sr isotopic study on two mantle xenoliths (a wehrlite and a melt pocket-bearing peridotite) entrained by the Changle Miocene basalts from the eastern China. The Changle wehrlite contains carbonate melt inclusions and apatites and is merely enriched in clinopyroxene relative to the Changle lherzolites. The clinopyroxenes are characterized by high (La/Yb)N (4.7–41) and low Ti/Eu (873–2292) ratios and equilibrated with carbonated silicate melt-like compositions. These petrographic and chemical features indicate that the wehrlite was formed by reaction between peridotite and carbonated silicate melts. On the other hand, the Changle melt pocket-bearing peridotite is suggested to have been produced by in-situ melting/breakdown of amphiboles of an amphibole-rich dunite. Low olivine Fo (~89), presence of amphiboles with high (La/Yb)N (~50) and low Ti/Eu (~1070) ratios suggest that such amphibole-rich dunite would have been formed by reaction of peridotite with hydrous alkaline basaltic melts from a carbonated mantle. Our data, combined with previously reported data of the Changle lherzolite xenoliths, unravel a series of mantle metasomatisms by carbonatitic to alkaline melts from carbonated mantle sources. The consistently high 87Sr/86Sr ratios (up to 0.7036) of the clinopyroxenes in both the wehrlites and lherzolites indicate the carbonate components in the mantle sources were derived from the stagnant Pacific slab within the Mantle Transition Zone. This study provides a fresh perspective on the role of deep carbon cycling from subducted oceanic slabs in chemical modification of intracontinental lithospheric mantle through reaction with different types of melts.