An olivine-free mantle source of Hawaiian shield basalts

Alexander V. Sobolev (), Albrecht W. Hofmann, Stephan V. Sobolev and Igor K. Nikogosian
Additional contact information
Alexander V. Sobolev: Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie
Albrecht W. Hofmann: Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie
Stephan V. Sobolev: GeoForschungsZentrum
Igor K. Nikogosian: Utrecht University

Nature, 2005, vol. 434, issue 7033, 590-597

Abstract: Abstract More than 50 per cent of the Earth's upper mantle consists of olivine and it is generally thought that mantle-derived melts are generated in equilibrium with this mineral. Here, however, we show that the unusually high nickel and silicon contents of most parental Hawaiian magmas are inconsistent with a deep olivine-bearing source, because this mineral together with pyroxene buffers both nickel and silicon at lower levels. This can be resolved if the olivine of the mantle peridotite is consumed by reaction with melts derived from recycled oceanic crust, to form a secondary pyroxenitic source. Our modelling shows that more than half of Hawaiian magmas formed during the past 1 Myr came from this source. In addition, we estimate that the proportion of recycled (oceanic) crust varies from 30 per cent near the plume centre to insignificant levels at the plume edge. These results are also consistent with volcano volumes, magma volume flux and seismological observations.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03411 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:434:y:2005:i:7033:d:10.1038_nature03411

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

DOI: 10.1038/nature03411

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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