Deep roots for mid-ocean-ridge volcanoes revealed by plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions

Nature
Emma N BennettC Johan Lissenberg

Abstract

The global mid-ocean ridge system is the most extensive magmatic system on our planet and is the site of 75 per cent of Earth's volcanism1. The vertical extent of mid-ocean-ridge magmatic systems has been considered to be restricted: even at the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel mid-ocean ridge under the Arctic Ocean, where the lithosphere is thickest, crystallization depths of magmas that feed eruptions are thought to be less than nine kilometres2. These depths were determined using the volatile-element contents of melt inclusions, which are small volumes of magma that become trapped within crystallizing minerals. In studies of basaltic magmatic systems, olivine is the mineral of choice for this approach2-6. However, pressures derived from olivine-hosted melt inclusions are at odds with pressures derived from basalt major-element barometers7 and geophysical measurements of lithospheric thickness8. Here we present a comparative study of olivine- and plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions from the Gakkel mid-ocean ridge. We show that the volatile contents of plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions correspond to much higher crystallization pressures (with a mean value of 270 megapascals) than olivine-hosted melt inclusions (with a mean value of ...Continue Reading

References

Jul 1, 2016·Nature·Vera Schlindwein, Florian Schmid
Jan 14, 2017·Nature Communications·M Le VoyerE H Hauri
Apr 11, 2019·Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·C Johan LissenbergEmma N Bennett
Jan 1, 2018·Contributions to mineralogy and petrology. Beiträge zur Mineralogie und Petrologie·Margaret E HartleySæmundur A Halldórsson

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Citations

Jun 11, 2019·Contributions to mineralogy and petrology. Beiträge zur Mineralogie und Petrologie·Emma N BennettKatharine V Cashman
Feb 21, 2021·Nature Communications·Gil Chan HwangYongjae Lee

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray

Software Mentioned

Instruments Aztec
MagmaSat
VolatileCalc
Oxford

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