Experimental study of the phase and melting relations of homogeneous basalt + peridotite mixtures and implications for the petrogenesis of flood basalts

摘要

Flood basalt provinces may constitute some of the most catastrophic volcanic events in the Earth's history. A popular model to explain them involves adiabatic ascent of plumes of anomalously hot peridotite from a thermal boundary layer deep in the mantle, across the peridotite solidus. However, peridotitic plumes probably require unreasonably high potential temperatures to generate sufficient volumes of magma and high enough melting rates to produce flood volcanism. This lead to the suggestion that low melting eclogitic or pyroxenitic heterogeneities may be present in the source regions of the flood basalts. In order to constrain petrogenetic models for flood basalts generated in this way, an experimental investigation of the melting relations of homogeneous peridotite + oceanic basalt mixtures has been performed. Experiments were conducted at 3.5 GPa on a fertile peridotite (MPY90) oceanic basalt (GAl) compositional join. The hybrid basalt + peridotite compositions crystallised garnet lherzolite at subsolidus temperatures plus quenched ne-normative picritic liquids at temperatures just above the solidus, over the compositional range MPY90 to GAl_(50)MPY90_(50). The solidus temperature decreased slightly from approx 1500 deg C for MPY90 to approx 1450 deg C for Gal_(50)MPY90_(50). Compositions similar to GA1_(30)MPY90_(70) have 100 percent melting compressed into a melting interval which is approximately 50-60 percent smaller than that for pure MPY90, due to a liquidus minimum. During adiabatic ascent of hybrid source material containing a few tens of percent basalt in peridotite, the lower solidus and compressed solidus-liquidus temperature interval may conspire to substantially enhance melt productivity. Mixtures of recycled oceanic crust and peridotite in mantle plumes may therefore provide a viable source for some flood volcanics. Evidence for this would include higher than normal Fe/Mg values in natural primary liquids, consistent with equilibration with more Fe-rich olivine than normal pyrolitic olivine (i.e.