Slab dehydration and basalt petrogenesis in subduction systems involving very young oceanic lithosphere

Abstract

Compositions of post-Miocene basalts erupted in the Garibaldi and Central America volcanic arcs exhibit significant correlations with the age of the subducted plate. In general, SiO 2, Al 2O 3, CaO, V, and (Sr/P) N decrease and FeO, MgO, TiO 2 and Na 2O increase as the age of the subducted plate decreases. Variations in CaO/Al 2O 3, SiO 2, (Sr/P) N , and Ba are compatible with lesser slab input, and hence less hydrous melting conditions in the mantle wedge in segments of the arcs overlying the youngest oceanic lithosphere. This interpretation is supported by comparison with peridotite melting experiments, which suggest higher melt pressures and temperatures in the mantle wedge above very young oceanic lithosphere. These observations point to a model in which dehydration of the downgoing slab occurs at shallow depths in subduction systems involving oceanic lithosphere younger than about 20 Ma. Because young oceanic lithosphere is relatively warm, little post-subduction heating is required to produce metamorphic reactions that release slab volatiles. Geodynamic models indicate most volatile-liberating reactions will occur within the seismogenic zone in oceanic lithosphere younger than 20 Ma, thus limiting the volatile flux beneath the arc and encouraging drier, higher temperature and higher pressure melting conditions in the mantle wedge in comparison to typical arc systems. Liberation of volatiles in the downgoing plate is strongly dependant on the shear stress on the fault, but is predicted to occur within the seismogenic zone for shear stresses greater than ∼33 MPa. Similarly, early loss of volatiles is predicted over a wide range of convergence rates, plate dips, and convergence angles. These results are shown to be robust for realistic ranges of slab dip, convergence angle, and shear stress, suggesting that volatile-poor melt generation is a characteristic of modern and ancient arc systems that involve subduction of young oceanic lithosphere.