Timescales for the growth of sediment diapirs in subduction zones

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This article is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Journal International 190 (2012): 1361–1377, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2012.05565.x.In this study, we calculate timescales for the growth of gravitational instabilities forming in the sediment layer on the downgoing slab at subduction zones. Subducted metasediments are buoyant with respect to the overlying mantle and may form diapirs that detach from the slab and rise upwards into the mantle wedge. We use a particle-in-cell, finite-difference method to calculate growth rates for instabilities forming within a buoyant, wet-quartz metasediment layer underlying a dense mantle half-space composed of wet olivine. These growth rates are used to determine where sediment diapirs initiate and detach from the slab over a range of subduction zone thermal structures. We find that, given a sufficient layer thickness (200–800 m, depending on slab-surface and mantle-wedge temperatures), sediment diapirs begin to grow rapidly at depths of ∼80 km and detach from the slab within 1–3 Myr at temperatures ≤900 °C and at depths roughly corresponding to the location of the slab beneath the arc. Diapir growth is most sensitive to absolute slab temperature, however it is also affected by the viscosity ratio between the sediment layer and the mantle wedge and the length-scale over which viscosity decays above the slab. These secondary affects are most pronounced in colder subduction systems with old slabs and faster subduction rates. For a broad range of subduction zone thermal conditions, we find that diapirs can efficiently transport sediments into the mantle wedge, where they would melt and be incorporated into arc magmas. Thus, we conclude that sediment diapirism is a common feature of many subduction zones, providing a potential explanation for the ‘sediment signature’ in the chemistry of arc magmas.This work was supported by NSF Grant EAR-0652707 and a WHOI Deep Ocean Exploration Institute Fellowship to MB

Mobilisation of deep crustal sulfide melts as a first order control on upper lithospheric metallogeny

Magmatic arcs are terrestrial environments where lithospheric cycling and recycling of metals and volatiles is enhanced. However, the first-order mechanism permitting the episodic fluxing of these elements from the mantle through to the outer Earth’s spheres has been elusive. To address this knowledge gap, we focus on the textural and minero-chemical characteristics of metal-rich magmatic sulfides hosted in amphibole-olivine-pyroxene cumulates in the lowermost crust. We show that in cumulates that were subject to increasing temperature due to prolonged mafic magmatism, which only occurs episodically during the complex evolution of any magmatic arc, Cu-Au-rich sulfide can exist as liquid while Ni-Fe rich sulfide occurs as a solid phase. This scenario occurs within a ‘Goldilocks’ temperature zone at ~1100–1200 °C, typical of the base of the crust in arcs, which permits episodic fractionation and mobilisation of Cu-Au-rich sulfide liquid into permeable melt networks that may ascend through the lithosphere providing metals for porphyry and epithermal ore deposits

Flux of carbonate melt from deeply subducted pelitic sediments: Geophysical and geochemical implications for the source of Central American volcanic arc

[1] We determined the fluid-present and fluid-absent near-solidus melting of an Al-poor carbonated pelite at 3–7 GPa, to constrain the possible influence of sediment melt in subduction zones. Hydrous silicate melt is produced at the solidi at 3–4 GPa whereas Na-K-rich carbonatite is produced at the solidi at ≥5 GPa for both starting compositions. At ≥5 GPa and 1050°C, immiscible carbonate and silicate melts appear with carbonate melt forming isolated pockets embedded in silicate melt. Application of our data to Nicaraguan slab suggests that sediment melting may not occur at sub-arc depth (∼170 km) but carbonatite production can occur atop slab or by diapiric rise of carbonated-silicate mélange zone to the mantle wedge at ∼200–250 km depth. Flux of carbonatite to shallower arc-source can explain the geochemistry of Nicaraguan primary magma (low SiO2and high CaO, Ba/La). Comparison of carbonate-silicate melt immiscibility field with mantle wedge thermal structure suggests that carbonatite might temporally be trapped in viscous silicate melt, and contribute to seismic low-velocity zone at deep mantle wedge of Nicaragua

When will it end? Long-lived intracontinental reactivation in central Australia

The post-Mesoproterozoic tectonometamorphic history of the Musgrave Province, central Australia, has previously been solely attributed to intracontinental compressional deformation during the 580–520 Ma Petermann Orogeny. However, our new structurally controlled multi-mineral geochronology results, from two north-trending transects, indicate protracted reactivation of the Australian continental interior over ca. 715 million years. The earliest events are identified in the hinterland of the orogen along the western transect. The first tectonothermal event, at ca. 715 Ma, is indicated by 40Ar/39Ar muscovite and U–Pb titanite ages. Another previously unrecognised tectonometamorphic event is dated at ca. 630 Ma by U–Pb analyses of metamorphic zircon rims. This event was followed by continuous cooling and exhumation of the hinterland and core of the orogen along numerous faults, including the Woodroffe Thrust, from ca. 625 Ma to 565 Ma as indicated by muscovite, biotite, and hornblende 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages. We therefore propose that the Petermann Orogeny commenced as early as ca. 630 Ma. Along the eastern transect, 40Ar/39Ar muscovite and zircon (U–Th)/He data indicate exhumation of the foreland fold and thrust system to shallow crustal levels between ca. 550 Ma and 520 Ma, while the core of the orogen was undergoing exhumation to mid-crustal levels and cooling below 600–660 °C. Subsequent cooling to 150–220 °C of the core of the orogen occurred between ca. 480 Ma and 400 Ma (zircon [U–Th]/He data) during reactivation of the Woodroffe Thrust, coincident with the 450–300 Ma Alice Springs Orogeny. Exhumation of the footwall of the Woodroffe Thrust to shallow depths occurred at ca. 200 Ma. More recent tectonic activity is also evident as on the 21 May, 2016 (Sydney date), a magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurred, and the resolved focal mechanism indicates that compressive stress and exhumation along the Woodroffe Thrust is continuing to the present day. Overall, these results demonstrate repeated amagmatic reactivation of the continental interior of Australia for ca. 715 million years, including at least 600 million years of reactivation along the Woodroffe Thrust alone. Estimated cooling rates agree with previously reported rates and suggest slow cooling of 0.9–7.0 °C/Ma in the core of the Petermann Orogen between ca. 570 Ma and 400 Ma. The long-lived, amagmatic, intracontinental reactivation of central Australia is a remarkable example of stress transmission, strain localization and cratonization-hindering processes that highlights the complexity of Continental Tectonics with regards to the rigid-plate paradigm of Plate Tectonics

Episodic slab rollback fosters exhumation of HP-UHP rocks

International audienceThe burial-exhumation cycle of crustal material in subduction zones can either be driven by the buoyancy of the material, by the surrounding flow, or by both. High pressure and ultrahigh pressure rocks are chiefly exhumed where subduction zones display transient behaviours, which lead to contrasted flow regimes in the subduction mantle wedge. Subduction zones with stationary trenches (mode I) favour the burial of rock units, whereas slab rollback (mode II) moderately induces an upward flow that contributes to the exhumation, a regime that is reinforced when slab dip decreases (mode III). Episodic regimes of subduction that involve different lithospheric units successively activate all three modes and thus greatly favour the exhumation of rock units from mantle depth to the surface without need for fast and sustained erosion

Craton Destruction 2:Evolution of Cratonic Lithosphere after a Rapid Keel Delamination Event

Cratonic lithosphere beneath the eastern North China Craton has undergone extensive destruction since early Jurassic times (approximately 190Ma). This is recorded in its episodic tectonic and magmatic history. In this time, its lithosphere changed thickness from approximately 200km to <60km. This change was associated with a peak time (approximately 120Ma) of lithospheric thinning and magmatism that was linked with high surface heat flow recorded in rift basins. We believe that these records are best explained by a two-stage evolutionary process. First, approximately 100km of cratonic keel underlying a weak midlithospheric discontinuity layer (approximately 80-100km) was rapidly removed in <10-20Ma. This keel delamination stage was followed by a protracted (approximately 50-100Ma) period of convective erosion and/or lithospheric extension that thinned the remaining lithosphere and continuously reworked the former cratonic lithospheric mantle. This study focuses on numerical exploration of the well-recorded second stage of the eastern North China Craton's lithospheric evolution. We find that (1) lithospheric mantle capped by thick crust can be locally replaced by deeper mantle material in 100Ma due to small-scale convective erosion; (2) asthenospheric upwelling and related extension can replace lithospheric mantle over horizontal length scales of 50-150km, and account for observed mushroom-shaped low-velocity structures; (3) modeling shows conditions that could lead to the multiple eastern North China Craton magmatic pulses between 190 and 115Ma that are associated with temporal and spatial changes in magma source petrology and a magmatic hiatus; and (4) a wet midlithospheric discontinuity layer provides a potential source material for on-craton magmatism

Modeling Craton Destruction by Hydration‐Induced Weakening of the Upper Mantle

Growing evidence shows that lithospheric mantle beneath cratons may contain a certain amount of water that originated from dehydration of subducted slabs or mantle metasomatism. As water can significantly reduce the viscosity of nominally anhydrous minerals such as olivine, hydration‐induced rheological weakening is a possible mechanism for the lithospheric thinning of cratons. Using 2‐D thermomechanical numerical models, we investigated the influence of water on dislocation and diffusion creep of olivine during the evolution of cratonic lithosphere. Modeling results indicate that dislocation creep of wet olivine alone is insufficient to trigger dramatic lithospheric thinning within a timescale of tens of millions of years, even with an extremely high water content. However, if diffusion creep is incorporated, significant convective instability will occur at the base of the lithosphere and drive lithospheric mantle dripping, which results in intense lithospheric thinning. We performed semianalytical models to better understand the influence of various parameters on the onset of convective instability. The convective instability promoted by hydration weakening drives lithospheric mantle dripping beneath cratons and thus provides a possible mechanism for cratonic thinning

Fields of Care: Placing Animal-Human Communities in the early Neolithic of the Sofia Basin, Bulgaria

434 pagesThis dissertation sits at the confluence of social zooarchaeology and multispecies studies. It is a reexamination of Neolithic society that attempts to move past the technocratic and anthropocentric narratives that have come to dominate Neolithic research, by affording animals subjective agency in one of the most important mechanisms of social reproduction—place making. Neolithic places, which I argue emerge through the interaction between humans, animals, and the environment, are the constituent elements in a social landscape that changed dynamically as Neolithic communities spread throughout southeastern Europe. This process, typically referred to as neolithization, has recently been cast in purely adaptive terms, with animal communities regarded as tools to cope with novel environmental niches. This dissertation argues that neolithization is driven at least in part by the need and or desires of both humans and animals to respond to one another’s unique physiologies and intentionalities. Thus, it does not deny the critical role played by environment in the spread of a farming lifestyle throughout Europe, but rather considers it one variable in a complex web of interorganismal entanglements that made the Neolithic a highly contingent phenomenon. To accomplish this goal, this dissertation draws upon bodies of thought in anthropology, geography, and landscape archaeology to lay out the datasets relevant to an understanding of mutually produced places. Separated into two broad groupings that I label “spatial” and “social”, these data include the faunal remains themselves and their derived taxonomic, element, and demographic profiles as well as isotopic data from bone collagen and dental enamel from domestic herbivores. Taken together, these data allow for an investigation of animal places—in the physical sense of their locations in the landscape at various times of the year—and their places in the social and symbolic order of the Neolithic. As a result of the analysis provided in this dissertation, several things can be said about animal places during the Neolithic in the Sofia Basin. The frequency, intensity, timing, and location of human encounters with different species, both domestic and wild, are laid out using these data and the implications for human-animal interaction are explored