Residual glasses and melt inclusions in basalts from DSDP Legs 45 and 46: Evidence for magma mixing

Abstract

Compositional relations among natural glasses in basalts recovered by Legs 45 and 46 (DSDP) provide powerful constraints on their differentiation histories. Residual glass compositions in the moderately evolved aphyric and abundantly phyric basalts within each site demonstrate that none of the units is mutually related to any other or to a common parent by simple fractional crystallization. At Site 396, where clinopyroxene phenocrysts are absent, progressively more evolved liquids (lower Mg/ (Mg+Fe) and higher TiO2) are characterized by lower calcium-aluminum ratios, which can only be generated by clinopyroxene fractionation. This paradox is amplified by some melt inclusions in olivine phenocrysts that have higher CaO/Al2O3 and lower TiO2 than any residual glasses. The occurrences of these distinctive compositions are correlated with the highly magnesian character of the host olivines (Fo90−89), and the melts are interpreted as trapped primitive liquids, parental to the more fractionated derivatives. Melt inclusions intermediate in composition between the residual glasses and the most primitive olivine melt inclusions are present in the cores of some plagioclase phenocrysts that have had a history of resorption. On the basis of a petrographic and microprobe analysis of the zoning relations in these phenocrysts, the inclusions are inferred to be melts entrapped at the time of extensive corrosion of the host crystals. Interpreted in conjunction with other mineral and geochemical data, the compositional trends in the glasses indicate that magma mixing has played a major role in the genesis of the Leg 45 and 46 basalts. The reality of mixing is demonstrated by extensive disequilibrium textures in the plagioclase phenocrysts and the presence in evolved lavas of refractory plagioclase and olivine phenocrysts bearing primitive melt inclusions. The chemical imprint of clinopyroxene fractionation despite the absence of clinopyroxene phenocrysts is believed to be accomplished by plating of gabbro on to the upper walls of the subvolcanic magma chamber as it evolves between mixing events. Repeated influxes of primitive magma batches will move the resultant hybrids alway from clinopyroxene saturation and generate olivine-plagioclase cotectic magmas. This model provides a physical buffering mechanism that accounts for the volumetric dominance of moderately evolved basalts among ocean floor tholeiites. Major and trace element models based on the combination of mixing and fractional crystallization also explain heretofore enigmatic geochemical characteristics of MORB.