Quartz-bearing rhyolitic melts in the Earth’s mantle

Luigi Dallai (), Gianluca Bianchini, Riccardo Avanzinelli, Etienne Deloule, Claudio Natali, Mario Gaeta, Andrea Cavallo and Sandro Conticelli ()
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Luigi Dallai: Sapienza—Università di Roma
Gianluca Bianchini: Università di Ferrara
Riccardo Avanzinelli: Università di Firenze
Etienne Deloule: CRPG, UMR 7358 CNRS-Université de Lorraine
Claudio Natali: Università di Firenze
Mario Gaeta: Sapienza—Università di Roma
Andrea Cavallo: Certema S.c.a.r.l.
Sandro Conticelli: Università di Firenze

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The occurrence of rhyolite melts in the mantle has been predicted by high pressure-high temperature experiments but never observed in nature. Here we report natural quartz-bearing rhyolitic melt inclusions and interstitial glass within peridotite xenoliths. The oxygen isotope composition of quartz crystals shows the unequivocal continental crustal derivation of these melts, which approximate the minimum composition in the quartz-albite-orthoclase system. Thermodynamic modelling suggests rhyolite was originated from partial melting of near-anhydrous garnet-bearing metapelites at temperatures ~1000 °C and interacted with peridotite at pressure ~1 GPa. Reaction of rhyolite with olivine converted lherzolite rocks into orthopyroxene-domains and orthopyroxene + plagioclase veins. The recognition of rhyolitic melts in the mantle provides direct evidence for element cycling through earth’s reservoirs, accommodated by dehydration and melting of crustal material, brought into the mantle by subduction, chemically modifying the mantle source, and ultimately returning to surface by arc magmatism.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35382-3

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