Eclogite Engine Don L. Anderson Caltech Don L. Anderson Caltech

Can we bridge geophysics,geochemistry & geodynamics?  Continents; the missing link  The lower crust is transient  It is recycled 6 times faster than upper crust  Recent arc growth estimates are 5X previous estimates!  Therefore, a huge previously unaccounted for flux  Continents; the missing link  The lower crust is transient  It is recycled 6 times faster than upper crust  Recent arc growth estimates are 5X previous estimates!  Therefore, a huge previously unaccounted for flux

THE UPPER MANTLE ECLOGITE CYCLE All the components of so-called hotspot or plume magmas originate in crust, lithosphere, cumulates or mantle wedge The Isotope Zoo EM1, EM2, HIMU, DUPAL, LONU, High 3He/4He, C-, FOZO, Os…

Mantle is a Top-Down System Sources of dissipation The top boundary condition is not simple delamination

Many ways to get big chunks of mafic matter into upper mantle Subduction of seamount chains, aseismic ridges Delamination of island arcs Delamination of compressional mountain belts

Estimating mantle sources & sinks, continental addition & loss, through time, depends critically on when deep subduction, got underway David Scholl 1 Gyr of oceanic crust subduction=70 km of eclogite But lots of other things get put into the mantle OIB ~2 Km 3 /yr 20 km 3 /yr Piles 70 km/Gyr

Midplate volcanisms & arcs can be upper mantle recycling

RIDGE-TRENCH ANNIHILATION Abandonment of young oceanic crust and mantle wedge BAB Mantle wedge Trapped crust Future suture EM1 EM 2 HIM U FOZ O LOMU HI 3 HE/U All of the isotope and trace element signatures of OIB are manufactured in the subduction factory, wedge & crust

dense roots fall off warm up in ambient mantle rise possible mechanism for Atlantic & Indian ocean plateaus & DUPAL anomaly Delamination cycle

SHEAR VELOCITY ECLOGITE AT DEPTH HAS LOW SHEAR VELOCITY densit y

Non-uniform heat leakage from the top & peeling off of crust The eclogite engine, as in any engine, involves changes in volume due to compression, heating and phase changes.One cannot consider T but not P. The cycle is cooling, phase change (eclogite), compression (sinking), heating, phase change (melting), decompression (rising), heat exchange… [The continent may move, rather than the blob.] heating Dual eruptions unstable

Delaminated roots warm quickly will start to melt before reaching same T as surrounding mantle already in TBL, so starts off warm when 30% melt, garnet mostly gone & will start to rise

Dry peridotite can only melt in very shallow mantle; hence adiabatic ascent at ridges Eclogite can melt much deeper, and much more, even when colder; hence, “midplate magmatism” Peridotite melts EclogitemeltsEclogitemelts Eclogite melts

The breakup of Gondwana and the uncovering of the Indian and Atlantic oceans provides the best opportunity for seeing the re-emergence of these fertile blobs, after they have been heated by ambient mantle. It has been proposed that the Indian ocean and the south Atlantic plateaus and island chains may be due to these mafic patches that were injected into the mantle from the base of the Gondwana crust (Anderson, 2005).

LIPs are associated with continental breakup reconstruction at ~ 30 Ma dual volcanism –on breakup –~ 30 Myr later oceanic plateaus form ~ 1,000 km offshore = rising of delaminated root?

NO PLUME NECESSARY COUNTERFLOW CHANNEL Slow upwelling DELAMINATION MANTLE WEDGE EROSION Input into asthenosphere: delamination, seamount chains, broad upwelling, abandoned mantle wedges Broad upwellings

delaminated crust, 2 wedge, 3 broad upwelling, 4 young oceanic crust Fertile blob & asthenospheric counterflow model LVZ ^

Test of the model; lots of scattering in the upper mantle There is no mass balance or geochemical reason for anything to come from below 1000 km

Blobs gain heat from mantle Blobs deliver heat & magma to surface NOTICE! Oceanic crust not involved at all !

TRI-CYCLING THROUGH THE EARTH RIDGE-TRENCH ‘CYCLE’ (the escalator) SUPERCONTINENT CYCLE (the trolley) SLAB-PLUME ‘CYCLE’ (the tube) SUBTERRANEAN CYCLE (delamination, orogenic cycle; the elevator)

Garnet and clinopyroxeneOlivine and opx I ––––––10 cm or 10 km ? –– I Scale matters >10-km blobs; gravity takes over; heating is slow piclogite

Eclogite melts in the mantle react with peridotite to form pyroxenite The olivine of mantle peridotite is consumed by reaction with melts derived from recycled crust & cumulates, to form a secondary pyroxenitic source ‘Hotspot’ basalts such as Hawaii form from olivine-free mantle

GALILEO THERMOMETER Blobs sink to level of neutral buoyancy But they don’t stay there In mantle, they heat up & melt And bring mantle heat & magma to base of plate Not core heat

Rates of generation of the continental crust The rates at which basaltic magma is added to the continental crust have recently been revised upwards range to 3.7 km 3 yr -1 The “plume affinity” of basaltic rocks in juvenile crust has been used to support deep-seated disturbances in the Earth, as opposed to shallow-level processes. But this evidence could also be used in support of the delamination model. The average residence times of the lower crust may be at least five times less than the upper crust

THE ECLOGITE CYCLE Mass balance seems o.k. Petrology & major elements seem o.k. Isotopes seem o.k. including stable isotopes Dynamics seems o.k. Thermodynamics seem fine Energetics seem o.k.

What caused these? LIPs CFB SDR NAVP CRB OPB BABB OJP

New parameters Scale (size) Homologous temperature Stress Buoyancy parameter Architecture Fertility Entrainability

MASS BALANCE km 3 /yr TOTAL MIDPLATE MAGMA VOLUMES 3-6 Growth rate of arc garnet pyroxenite cumulates Underside erosion & delamination of continents 4-6 Production rate of magmas in arcs 4-5 LOWER CRUSTAL LOSS = ‘HOTSPOT’ MAGMATISM CYCLE TIME MYR KM CHUNKS

KEY ELEMENTS Mantle is source of heat Thick basalt piles are the source of material True Top-Down system Mantle is heterogeneous Heterogenity washed out by Central Limit Theorem (ridges, tomography), not by mantle convection Mantle is gumbo, not fruit cake

Unification of geodynamics & geochemistry of mantle Delamination of lower continental crust & subduction of seamount chains fertilize the mantle These become low meltng point blobs It is these, not plumes, that explain ‘anomalies’ such as midplate volcanism, swells and ‘hotspots’