The effects of deep damp melting on mantle flow and melt generation beneath mid-ocean ridges

Abstract

We explore the implications of experimental constraints on mantle rheology and the thermodynamics of melting for mantle flow and melt generation beneath a mid-ocean ridge. Numerical models are used to investigate the effects of (1) rheologies affected by dehydration during melting, the presence of melt, and a transition in creep mechanism to grain boundary sliding, and (2) variations in the rate of melt production. Water in the mantle deepens the peridotite solidus, producing a region of damp melting between approximately 70 and 120 km depth. Extraction of water during melting can increase mantle viscosity by as much as two orders of magnitude. At the same time, the presence of melt can decrease the mantle viscosity. A decrease in recrystallized grain size due to the presence of melt can promote a transition in the dominant deformation mechanism to grain boundary sliding limited by creep on the easiest slip system for olivine, resulting in an additional order of magnitude decrease in viscosity. The increase in viscosity associated with dehydration significantly inhibits buoyant mantle flow in the dry melting region. However, buoyantly driven flow is predicted in the damp melting region if the viscosity in this depth interval is on the order of 10 18 Pa s; a viscosity this low can be achieved if a transition to grain boundary sliding occurs after the onset of damp melting. Previous models suggest that crustal thickness variation with spreading rate is a consequence of conductive cooling at the top of the melting region. If melt productivity is higher, so that more melt is produced at greater depth, then the influence of spreading rate on crustal thickness is reduced even in the absence of buoyant upwelling. Rheology has a significant effect on the size and shape of the melting region and the strain distribution beneath the ridge at a given spreading rate. For example, buoyant upwelling in the damp melting region localizes melt production and induces a region of strong elongation in finite strain ellipses between 50–120 km, offering an explanation for the apparent difference in seismic anisotropy inferred from body and surface waves in the MELT experiment. The models indicate that the magnitudes of the effects of buoyant flow in the damp melting region become increasingly prominent at slower spreading ridges. If lattice preferred orientations produced by deep buoyant flow are incorporated into the lithosphere as it thickens by conductive cooling, then anisotropy in old lithosphere may be greater for lithosphere created at slower spreading rates.