Mg-Sr isotopes of low-δ26Mg basalts tracing recycled carbonate species: Implication for the initial melting depth of the carbonated mantle in Eastern China

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent studies show that crustal carbonates recycled into the mantle can be traced using Mg isotopes of basalts. However, the species of recycled carbonates are poorly constrained. Carbonates have lower δ26Mg values and higher 87Sr/86Sr ratios relative to the mantle, but different carbonate species display different mixing curves with the mantle in the Mg-Sr isotopic diagram because of differences in their Sr and Mg contents. Thus a combined study of Mg-Sr isotopes can constrain the species of deeply recycled carbonates. Here, we present newly determined 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the <110 Ma basalts from Eastern China, and together with published Mg isotopic data we evaluate the species of recycled carbonates in the mantle and discuss their implication. The <110 Ma basalts display low δ26Mg values of ‒0.60 to ‒0.30‰ and relatively low initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0.70328 to 0.70537, suggesting that their mantle source was hybridized by recycled carbonates with a light Mg isotopic composition which had more significant effects on Mg than Sr isotope ratios. Mg-Sr isotopic data indicate that the recycled carbonates consist of magnesite and aragonite, but the possibility of calcite and dolomite cannot be eliminated. Based on the carbonated peridotite solidus, the equilibrium line between dolomite and magnesite + aragonite, as well as the mantle adiabat, the initial melting depth of the carbonated mantle, the source region of the studied basalts, was constrained at ~300–360 km. Thus, the subducted depth of the west Pacific slab underlying the carbonated mantle and supplying recycled carbonates should be greater than ~300–360 km, consistent with the seismic tomography result that the west Pacific slab now stagnates in the mantle transition zone.