Subducted and recycled lithosphere as the mantle source of ocean island basalts from southern Polynesia, central Pacific

Abstract

The Marquesas, Society and Austral-Cook Islands, three volcanic chains in the central Pacific Ocean (French Polynesia), are composed mainly of alkali basalts, basanites and tholeiites, which have geochemical characteristics typical of ocean island basalts. The lavas from the Marquesas and Society Islands display generally chondritic ratios of highly incompatible trace elements and have higher 87 Sr 86 Sr than the basalts from the Austral-Cook Islands which have many trace-element ratios similar to those of mid-ocean ridge basalts. This grouping probably reflects differences in the composition of an ancient subducted and recycled lithosphere incorporated into the mantle source of the Polynesian basalts. Compared to Marquesas and Society Islands basalts, the mantle source of the Austral-Cook Islands basalts contains refractory oceanic lithosphere from which a larger amount of basaltic melt was extracted during subduction.