Slab-derived halogens and noble gases illuminate closed system processes controlling volatile element transport into the mantle wedge

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: Kobayashi, Masahiro, Sumino, Hirochika, Nagao, Keisuke, Ishimaru, Satoko, Arai, Shoji, Yoshikawa, Masako, Kawamoto, Tatsuhiko, Kumagai, Yoshitaka, Kobayashi, Tetsuo, Burgess, Ray, Ballentine, Christopher
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Avacha; Kamchatka
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publications/dc9dea41-3801-4cb6-95ec-cd961bc09be9; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.10.012

Halogen and noble gas systematics are powerful tracers of volatile recycling in subduction zones. We present halogen and noble gas compositions of mantle peridotites containing H2O-rich fluid inclusions collected at volcanic fronts from two contrasting subduction zones (the Avacha volcano of Kamchatka arc and the Pinatubo volcano of Luzon arcs) and orogenic peridotites from a peridotite massif (the Horoman massif, Hokkaido, Japan) which represents an exhumed portion of the mantle wedge. The aims are to determine how volatiles are carried into the mantle wedge and how the subducted fluids modify halogen and noble gas compositions in the mantle. The halogen and noble gas signatures in the H2O-rich fluids are similar to those of marine sedimentary pore fluids and forearc and seafloor serpentinites. This suggests that marine pore fluids in deep-sea sediments are carried by serpentine and supplied to the mantle wedge, preserving their original halogen and noble gas compositions. We suggest that the sedimentary pore fluid-derived water is incorporated into serpentine through hydration in a closed system along faults at the outer rise of the oceanic, preserving Cl/H2O and 36Ar/H2O values of sedimentary pore fluids. Dehydration–hydration process within the oceanic lithospheric mantle maintains the closed system until the final stage of serpentine dehydration. The sedimentary pore fluid-like halogen and noble gas signatures in fluids released at the final stage of serpentine dehydration are preserved due to highly channelized flow, whereas the original Cl/H2O and 36Ar/H2O ratios are fractionated by the higher incompatibility of halogens and noble gases in hydrous minerals.