Nb/Ta systematics in arc magma differentiation and the role of arclogites in continent formation

Ming Tang (), Cin-Ty A. Lee (), Kang Chen, Monica Erdman, Gelu Costin and Hehe Jiang
Additional contact information
Ming Tang: Rice University
Cin-Ty A. Lee: Rice University
Kang Chen: China University of Geosciences
Monica Erdman: Rice University
Gelu Costin: Rice University
Hehe Jiang: Rice University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The surfaces of rocky planets are mostly covered by basaltic crust, but Earth is unique in that it also has extensive regions of felsic crust, manifested in the form of continents. Exactly how felsic crust forms when basaltic magmas are the dominant products of melting the mantles of rocky planets is unclear. A fundamental part of the debate is centered on the low Nb/Ta of Earth’s continental crust (11–13) compared to basalts (15–16). Here, we show that during arc magma differentiation, the extent of Nb/Ta fractionation varies with crustal thickness with the lowest Nb/Ta seen in continental arc magmas. Deep arc cumulates (arclogites) are found to have high Nb/Ta (average ~19) due to the presence of high Nb/Ta magmatic rutiles. We show that the crustal thickness control of Nb/Ta can be explained by rutile saturation being favored at higher pressures. Deep-seated magmatic differentiation, such as in continental arcs and other magmatic orogens, is thus necessary for making continents.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08198-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-08198-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-08198-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().