Evidence From Adakitic Rocks For Lithosphere Recycling At The U.S. East Coast Volcanic Rifted Margin

Abstract:

Magmatism at magmatic rifted margins is dominated by asthenospheric melts generated during decompression melting from the upwelling asthenosphere. However reported magma compositions are diverse, giving clues about additional processes during rifting and continental rupture. We report here on adakites from the U.S. East Coast that are related to breakup of the North Atlantic. The sampled adakites are bi-modal, and show a clear high-Si and low-Si major and trace element chemistry. During the closure of the proto-Atlantic and its related back-arc basins, the Appalachian lithosphere sampled an ophiolitic mélange within major sutures. Subsequent metamorphic events in the Blue Ridge province of the U.S. East Coast increased the rock density of the ophiolites (eclogite) and partly hydrated these mafic to ultramafic rocks. Such a preconditioned lithosphere will likely develop gravitational instabilities at the asthenosphere-lithosphere boundary during rifting. We use geodynamic models to show when gravitational instabilities form below the East Coast margin, and how they eventually delaminate mantle lithosphere and lower crust material. After foundering, the delaminated lithosphere undergoes metamorphism, heats up, and interacts with fluids and melts in the surrounding convecting mantle. Partial melting of this metamorphic lithology produces high-Si adakitic melts. These melts percolated upwards through the mantle and were partially injected into the Valley and Ridge province. Where melt-to-peridotite (asthenosphere) ratios were small, the melts and fluids leaving the sinking lithospheric block became fixed within the peridotites. Geochemical modeling suggests, that 5 to 10% melting degrees of such a metasomatically overprinted and fertile asthenosphere produced the low-Si adakitic rocks of the Virginia adakites.