Experimental constraints on the fate of subducted upper continental crust beyond the “depth of no return”

Abstract:

Large–scale oceanic/continental subduction introduces a range of crustal materials into the Earth’s mantle. These subducted material will be gravitationally trapped in the deep mantle when they have been transported to a depth of greater than ~250–300 km (“depth of no return”). However, little is known about the fate of these trapped continental material. Here, we conduct experimental study on a natural continental rock which compositionally similar to the average upper continental crust (UCC) over a pressure and temperature range of 9–16 GPa and 1300–1800 ^oC to constraint the fate of these trapped continental materials. The experimental results demonstrate that subducted UCC produces ~20–30 wt% K–rich melt (>55 wt% SiO₂) in the upper mantle (9–13 GPa). The melting residue is mainly composed of coesite/stishovite + clinopyroxene + kyanite. In contrast, partial melting of subducted UCC in the MTZ produces ~10 wt% K–rich melt (<50 wt% SiO₂), together with stishovite, clinopyroxene, K–Hollandite, garnet and CAS–phase as the residue phases. The melting residue phases achieve densities greater than the surrounding mantle, which provides a driving force for descending across the 410 km seismic discontinuity into the MTZ. However, this density relationship is reversed at the base of MTZ, leaving the descended residues being accumulated above the 660 km seismic discontinuity and may contribute to the stagnated “second continent”. On the other hand, the melt is ~0.3–0.7 g/cm³ less dense than the surrounding mantle and provides a buoyancy force for the ascending of melt to shallow depth. The ascending melt preserves a significant portion of the bulk–rock REEs and LILEs. Thus, chemical reaction between the melt and the surrounding mantle would leads to a variably metasomatised mantle. Re-melting of the metasomatised mantle may contribute to the origin of the “enriched mantle sources” (EM–sources). Therefore, through subduction, stagnation, partial melting and melt segregation of continental crust may create EM–sources and“second continent” at shallow depth and the base of the MTZ respectively, which may contribute to the observed geochemical/geophysical heterogeneity in Earth’s interior.