Importance of permeability and deep channel network on the distribution of melt, fractionation of REE in abyssal peridotites, and U-series disequilibria in basalts beneath mid-ocean ridges: A numerical study using a 2D double-porosity model

摘要

A plethora of observations have been made at mid-ocean ridges and mantle sections of ophiolites: presence of tabular replacive dunites, highly depleted LREE in residual abyssal peridotites, U-series disequilibria in fresh basalts, crustal thickness, and highly attenuated seismic and magnetotelluric structures beneath spreading centers. These independent observations can become more powerful if they are jointly analyzed in a self-consistent model. The difficulty for such a model is to resolve and evaluate the effect of fine scale petrologic feature such as dunite channels in a tectonic scale geodynamic model. Here we present a two-dimensional double-porosity ridge model that consists of low-porosity residual lherzolite and harzburgite matrix and high-porosity interconnected channel network. The geodynamic simulation features a spatially distributed channel network and anisotropic permeability that gradually develops as the upwelling mantle is deformed. We compute the porosity, melt and solid flow fields for several choices of channel distribution and permeability model. We use the calculated porosity distribution and velocity fields to model the variations of REE in residual mantle and U-series disequilibria in melts.