Water Release from Cold Serpentinized Forearc Mantle During Subduction Associated with Changes in Incoming Oceanic Plate Thermal Structure and Plate Boundary Kinematics: New Insights

Abstract:

Kirby, Wang, and Brocher (Earth Planets and Space, 2014) recently showed how the change in kinematics of the California margin from subduction motion to continental transform motion with the birth and growth of the San Andreas Fault System (SAFS) beginning at about 33 Ma BP likely led to a warming of the former forearc mantle and the release of water by serpentinite dehydration. Such discharges from serpentinized mantle increase fluid pressures along the SAFS under the Coast Ranges and this gives insights into both the low sliding resistance for the SAFS and the mobilization and ascent of some serpentinized mantle peridotites through the crust. Thermal modeling by others has also shown that changes in the incoming plate age and subduction rate can also lead to warming of the forearc mantle during subduction. This development gives insights into the Mesozoic and Paleogene ages of emplacement of some, but not all, California serpentinites. Recent mineralogical and geochemical observations of serpentinized blocks in serpentinize mélange bodies in the San Francisco Bay Area (Uno and Kirby, 2015; Lewis and Kirby, 2015, this session) suggest that these rocks sustained multiple stages of serpentinization that are broadly consistent with the model of Kirby et al. (2014). Previous studies of localized late-stage silica-carbonate-water alteration of serpentinite bodies in California by carbonated water suggest that this alteration occurred largely in Neogene time when the highest rate of water release from the former forearc mantle probably happened. I also suggest that the occurrence of serpentinite belts emplaced in Cenozoic time during changing plate-boundary kinematics, such as the Cenozoic closing of the Tethys Ocean bordering Eurasia and arc reversal and decreasing convergence rates under the Greater Antilles, may give insights into the serpentinite belts in those regions.