Noble gas isotopic compositions and abundance ratios of mantle xenoliths from Honolulu series volcanism, Oahu, Hawaii

Abstract

We report new noble gas isotopic compositions and abundance ratios (helium, neon, and argon) extracted from six lherzolite xenoliths on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by vacuum crushing. Considering the equilibrium temperature of the xenoliths and the fluid density of their fluid inclusions, they originated from a pressure of 0.98–1.04 GPa, corresponding to 33–34 km depth. The Moho depth beneath Oahu Island is around 15 km, suggesting that the xenoliths are part of the sub-oceanic lithospheric mantle (SOLM), 90 million years old, after generation of mid-oceanic ridge basalts (MORB). The samples have 3He/4He of 3.0–9.5 times atmosphere (Ra). The neon isotope compositions overlap with the data of previous studies for lava flow samples of the Hawaiian Islands, MORB, and air. The 40Ar/36Ar range from atmospheric to 3100. They show very low 4He/40Ar* and 4He/21Ne*, where asterisks denote correction for atmospheric contributions. The low 4He/40Ar* and 4He/21Ne* are characteristic of small fluid inclusions, based on step crushing experiments, indicating that they record kinetic fractionation that occurred in the SOLM most likely due to melt infiltration. Using 4He/40Ar* and 20Ne/22Ne respectively as indices of the kinetic fractionation and atmospheric contribution, we corrected for these effects. The corrected noble gas isotopic compositions are best explained by interaction between plume-derived melts and SOLM. The kinetic fractionation yields a decrease in 3He/238U in SOLM, which should result in a rapid decrease in 3He/4He with time. The slightly elevated 3He/4He (above 8 times atmospheric), as found in the present xenoliths cannot be maintained for more than one million years in the fractionated SOLM with 3He/U molar ratio of ∼1 × 10−8, which is calculated assuming that the 3He/U has the same degree of kinetic fractionation as 4He/40Ar* and 4He/21Ne*. Therefore, the fractionation event is likely to be recent, and may be related to recent magmatism in the SOLM beneath Oahu Island. Such igneous activity is limited to Honolulu series volcanism (0.35–0.80 Ma). Therefore, the xenoliths contain a record of magmas with plume-derived noble gases, most likely associated with the Honolulu series volcanism.