SIGNIFICANCE OF SLAB-DERIVED PARTIAL MELTS AND AQUEOUS FLUIDS FOR THEGENESIS OF THOLEIITIC AND CALC-ALKALINE ISLAND-ARC BASALTS - EVIDENCEFROM MT ARAYAT, PHILIPPINES

Authors
Citation
M. Bau et U. Knittel, SIGNIFICANCE OF SLAB-DERIVED PARTIAL MELTS AND AQUEOUS FLUIDS FOR THEGENESIS OF THOLEIITIC AND CALC-ALKALINE ISLAND-ARC BASALTS - EVIDENCEFROM MT ARAYAT, PHILIPPINES, Chemical geology, 105(4), 1993, pp. 233-251
Citations number
73
Journal title
ISSN journal
00092541
Volume
105
Issue
4
Year of publication
1993
Pages
233 - 251
Database
ISI
SICI code
0009-2541(1993)105:4<233:SOSPMA>2.0.ZU;2-9
Abstract
Mt. Arayat, an inactive stratovolcano, is located behind the volcanic front of the Bataan segment of the Taiwan-Luzon Arc in the Central Val ley of Luzon, the Philippines. Volcanism in this arc-segment results f rom subduction of South China Sea Basin crust along the Manila Trench. Eruption products of Mt. Arayat comprise pyroclastics and porphyritic basalt and andesite lavas of high-K calc-alkaline affinity. Compared to typical oceanic island-arc volcanics, the basalts display slightly elevated abundances of Ta and Nb relative to Zr and Hf, and of Ta, Nb, Zr, Hf and light rare-earth elements (LREE's) relative to Y and heavy rare-earths (HREE's). Their REE distribution suggests mixing between high-HREE low-LREE/HREE and low-HREE high-LREE/HREE components, the la tter suggesting the presence of residual garnet in the source region o f Mt. Arayat basalts. Enrichment of LREE's relative to HREE's is typic al of calc-alkaline and high-K calc-alkaline island-arc basalts, but i s usually missing or small in island-arc tholeiites. LREE enrichment i s often attributed to a metasomatizing aqueous fluid generated during dehydration of the subducted slab. For this model to be applicable, ex tremely low abundances in the fluid of agents like F-, OH- and/or CO32 - which form hard complexes with the REE's, are a prerequisite. Due to the temperature dependence of the Eu3+/Eu2+ redox potential, divalent Eu predominates in aqueous fluids of low complex-forming capacity in the subduction zone environment whereas the other REE's (with the poss ible exception of Yb) are still trivalent. A LREE-enriched aqueous flu id generated by slab dehydration should therfore display a positive Eu anomaly. However, LREE-enriched island-arc basalts generally do not s how positive Eu anomalies, implying that this LREE enrichment is unlik ely to result from REE transfer by an aqueous fluid. Instead, a model is favoured which assumes contributions from both slab-derived aqueous fluids and partial melts. In the source region for island-arc tholeii tes the mantle wedge is only affected by a LILE-enriched aqueous fluid , whereas the source region for calc-alkaline and high-K calc-alkaline basalts is additionally metasomatized by small volumes of melt genera ted by small degrees of partial melting of the subducted slab with gar net as a residual phase. These LREE-enriched partial melts may react w ith the depleted peridotite of the mantle wedge to produce domains of refertilized garnet-peridotite. Subsequent partial melting produces ca lc-alkaline melts whose trace-element compositions display signatures of both depleted peridotite and more fertile garnet-peridotite.