Survival times of anomalous melt inclusions from element diffusion in olivine and chromite

C. Spandler (), H. St C. O’Neill () and V. S. Kamenetsky
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C. Spandler: Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia
H. St C. O’Neill: Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia
V. S. Kamenetsky: ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits and School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7001, Australia

Nature, 2007, vol. 447, issue 7142, 303-306

Abstract: Melts in the mantle Tiny droplets of melt that are trapped in minerals crystallizing at high temperature have been hailed as preserving the initial melts produced in the Earth's upper mantle. This view rests on the assumption that such melt inclusions remain chemically isolated by their host crystals from chemical re-equilibration with the magma that transports them to the Earth's surface, but a lab study of basalts dredged from the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge suggests that this assumption is unfounded. Chemical diffusion and partitioning data reveal rates of chemical diffusion between crystals and magma at high temperature that are so fast that any anomalous chemical signature of deep mantle melting preserved in the crystals will be eliminated before the magma reaches the surface. Instead, it's possible that these anomalous chemical signatures originated by assimilation of crustal rocks in shallow magma chambers.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05759

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