Geochemical “Moats” around Near-ridge Hot Spots

Abstract:

It has long been known that ridge basalts tend to become enriched in both isotopic and incompatible trace element ratios with proximity to a hot spot. Less recognized is that at a certain distance from the hot spot, samples are relatively depleted in moderately incompatible element ratios (e.g., Zr/Y, Dy/Yb) even as the enrichment in highly incompatible element ratios (e.g., Ba/La, La/Sm) persists. This leads in some cases to trace element patterns that are concave downward for moderately incompatible elements, indicating a depleted source, and concave upward for highly incompatible elements, indicating an enriched source. Clear offsets for samples near hot spots exist on plots such as Ba/La vs. Dy/Yb, and they also often have low Na_8.0 for their depth. Areas where such geochemical characteristics occur are adjacent to hot spots—they form a kind of geochemical “moat” of combined depletion and enrichment. Moats can result from two sequential processes: first removal of a melt in the presence of garnet, leading to a source with low Dy/Yb, etc., followed by addition of a low-degree (low F) enriched melt to produce incompatible element and isotope enrichment.

Two hypotheses for the moats are (1) they result from recent plume flow, where mantle that loses melt to the hot spot center is refertilized and enriched as it flows down the ridge. (2) Increased melting associated with a hot spot permits melting of ancient sources depleted by melt loss in the presence of garnet. High Hf isotopes for some moat samples from the N. Atlantic support model (2).

Geochemical moats have global regularities. Using segment means from previous work, we show that the maximum distance of a moat segment from a hot spot correlates with plume flux normalized to spreading rate, with an R² >0.9. A higher plume flux at slower spreading rates creates a larger moat. While high Hf isotopes are typical of N. Atlantic moat samples, this is not the case near Afar and Galapagos. This supports model (1) above, with Hf isotopes likely reflecting the regional mantle. While a geochemical model to account for the moats is straightforward, 3-D geophysical modeling is necessary to further elucidate these relationships.