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Light Mg Isotopic Composition in the Mantle Beyond the Big Mantle Wedge Beneath eastern Asia
Author(s) -
He Ye,
Chen LiHui,
Shi JinHua,
Zeng Gang,
Wang XiaoJun,
Xue XiaoQiu,
Zhong Yuan,
Erdmann Saskia,
Xie LieWen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.983
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 2169-9356
pISSN - 2169-9313
DOI - 10.1029/2018jb016857
Subject(s) - mantle (geology) , mantle wedge , geology , transition zone , geochemistry , subduction , basalt , hotspot (geology) , slab , cenozoic , earth science , paleontology , geophysics , tectonics , structural basin
Low‐δ 26 Mg basalts are commonly interpreted to represent melts derived from carbonated mantle sources. The mantle domain feeding low‐δ 26 Mg Cenozoic basalts in eastern China overlaps the so‐called Big Mantle Wedge (BMW) above the stagnant Pacific slab in the mantle transition zone, which indicates that the BMW is an important carbon reservoir generated by the slab. However, Mg isotopic composition in the nearby mantle beyond the BMW and, thus, the spatial extent of carbonated components in the mantle beneath eastern Asia have not yet been extensively characterized. Therefore, it remains largely unconstrained if additional or alternative carbon reservoirs exist. Here we carried out a geochemical study on Cenozoic Huihe nephelinites, which crop out ~500 km west of the present‐day BMW. These rocks are characterized by negative K, Zr, Hf, and Ti anomalies, high Zr/Hf, Ca/Al ratios, and low δ 26 Mg values, which suggest that they are derived from a carbonated mantle source. The composition of the nephelinites demonstrates that low δ 26 Mg mantle components exist at significant distances from the present‐day BMW, which highlights that in addition to the stagnant Pacific slab, other oceanic slab(s) also contribute(s) carbonate‐bearing crustal materials to the mantle sources of Cenozoic volcanism in eastern Asia.