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The origin of alkali basalts with distinctive time-integrated low U/Pb (low μ , LOMU) from East Asia is controversial due to the complex geochemical and tectonic signatures reported from this region. We report new data on the petrology and geochemistry of the Higashi-Matsuura and Kita-Matsuura alkali basalts from Southwest Japan, which confirm the presence of a LOMU-type mantle component below the Japanese Islands, similar to East Asian intraplate volcanoes. We use whole rock geochemistry and mineral chemistry to determine mantle melting, magma evolution conditions and isotopic evolution of the LOMU mantle source. Petrological studies show that the Higashi-Matsuura alkali basalts (~3 Ma) were derived from a hydrous mantle source with ~880 μg/g H2O, at a pressure of 1.8 to 2.3 GPa at a mantle potential temperature of ~1300°C. Trace element modelling concludes that these basalts may have been generated through the hydrous upwelling and partial melting of the asthenospheric mantle containing ~15% dehydrated eclogitic component. Higashi-Matsuura alkali basalts show 206Pb/204Pb values of 17.72 to 18.04 which are among the lowest values from Southwest Japan. Relatively older (6–8 Ma) alkali basalts from the Kita-Matsuura area showing similar physicochemical characteristics, do not show LOMU-type isotopic trends. Trace element and Pb–Sr–Nd isotopic data indicate that the Higashi-Matsuura mantle component is similar to the extreme LOMU components reported from the Northeast China alkali basalts, as well as the recently discovered Petit Spot volcanoes on the Pacific Plate. We model the origin of the LOMU signature from the lowest reported Pb isotope ratios in East Asia, from intraplate alkali basalts in Northeast China. Our model suggests that at least two separate subduction events of marine sediments, at 1.8 and 2.2 Ga, are required to explain the observed Pb isotopic variation in the East Asian region. Other LOMU type basalts from East Asia, including Southwest Japan and Petit Spot, define a linear trend between the Xiaogulihe basalts and lithospheric mantle xenoliths, with 40% to 60% Pb in Higashi-Matsuura basalts being derived from the lithospheric mantle during upwelling. This suggests that the LOMU array in East Asia may have been formed by mixing between multiple ancient, subducted sediment components accumulated at the mantle transition zone for about 2 billion years, and its recent upwelling due to dehydration of the stagnant Pacific slab and related melting of the metasomatised asthenospheric mantle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major- and trace-element compositions of amphiboles in andesite from Quaternary Yufu Volcano, northeastern Kyushu, Japan were analysed to investigate the generation processes of andesitic magma from Yufu Volcano. The amphiboles in andesite from Yufu volcano can be divided into two groups based on major-element composition: pargasite and magnesio-hornblende. To estimate temperature, pressure, and major- and trace-element compositions of melts in equilibrium with amphiboles, we used the recently proposed methods that can calculate temperature, pressure, major element compositions, and partition coefficients of trace-element between amphibole and melt using only the major-element compositions of amphibole. The estimated temperature, pressure, and major-element composition of melt in equilibrium with the amphibole phenocrysts indicate that each group crystallised under different conditions. These differences suggest that two magma chambers at different depths existed beneath Yufu Volcano and that the andesitic magma of Yufu Volcano was formed by mixing of the two magmas. The trace-element compositions of melts in equilibrium with the pargasite and magnesio-hornblende, estimated by applying the partition coefficients calculated from major-element compositions of amphibole to trace-element compositions of amphiboles, indicate magma derived from slab melt and the partial melting of crustal material, respectively. Because magma is a mixture of minerals and melt, we estimate the chemical compositional ranges of the two end-member magmas on the Y versus SiO2 diagram from the mixing relationship between amphibole and estimated melt, as well as phenocrysts of plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and orthopyroxene. The overlap of the estimated compositional range with the trend of whole-rock composition represents the chemical compositions of the end-members of magma mixing, yielding estimates of the mafic (SiO2 ≈ 45 wt %) and felsic (SiO2 ≈ 68 wt %) end-member magmas. Furthermore, we estimate the concentrations of other elements in the end-member magmas by substituting the estimated SiO2 concentrations of the magmas into linear regression equations between the whole-rock contents of other elements and SiO2. The trace-element compositions of the mafic and felsic end-member magmas, as estimated in this study, have similar features to those of gabbroids and Cretaceous granitic rocks, respectively, that are presumed to lie beneath Yufu Volcano. These similarities could be explained by the possibility that the compositions of the end-member magmas were influenced by basement rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intra-plate Cenozoic volcanism in Kita-Matsuura, northwestern Kyushu, Japan, shows systematic spatio-temporal changes in geochemistry that can be explained by partial melting followed by melt segregation in a region of upwelling mantle. We have examined the thermal and melting history of the upwelling mantle by quantitatively estimating melt water contents and melting conditions. The water content of a spectrum of primary melts is estimated to range from 0·5 to 1·5 wt % based on a combination of a plagioclase-liquid and olivine-saturated liquid geohygrometers and MELTS calculations. The estimated melt segregation temperature ranges from 1330 to 1500°C, at pressures from 1·7 to 2·8 GPa under hydrous conditions. Melting temperature and pressure decreased with time, whereas the water content of the primary melts increased. Corresponding temporal decreases in high field strength element (HFSE) abundances and HFSE/large ion lithophile element (LILE) ratios require progressive melt extraction and aggregation from a melting mantle with a continuous and gradually increasing input of H2O-rich fluid or melt into the melting system. The estimated isotope composition of influxed fluid lies on a mixing line between the sediment and altered oceanic crust of the Philippine Sea Plate, with strong affinity to the sediment composition. Based on the temporal variation of the magmas and the melting model, we propose small-scale upwelling (c. 70 km in diameter) of a dry mantle peridotite that interacts progressively with the overlying wet mantle wedge. The wet mantle wedge was previously hydrated by fluids from sediments from the subducted Philippine Sea Plate, whereas the deep and dry mantle could have been derived from the mantle beneath the subducted Pacific Plate through a slab window. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Significant differences between bulk-rock lithophile trace element budgets and the sum of the contributions from the constituent minerals are common, if not ubiquitous, in peridotite xenoliths. Notwithstanding the possible contributions from fluid inclusions and grain-boundary glass and micro-phases, it is often difficult to reconcile the bulk-rock incompatible element budgets with those of the silicate phases. In the absence of modal metasomatism this discrepancy is often attributed to the ‘catch-all’ yet often vague process of cryptic metasomatism. This study presents comprehensive petrological descriptions, major and trace element and Sr–Nd isotope data for variably metasomatized bulk-rock peridotites, host basalt, and constituent peridotite mineral phases from spinel lherzolite and harzburgite xenoliths from the Kilbourne Hole volcanic maar, New Mexico, USA. Similar measurements were also made on hand-picked interstitial glass from one of the most highly metasomatized samples in an attempt to unravel the sources, effects, and relative timings of multiple metasomatic events. Reaction textures around clinopyroxene grains are evident in the most metasomatized samples. These are accompanied by films of high-SiO2 interstitial glass, which is not in equilibrium with the primary silicate minerals. Trails of glassy melt inclusions terminate in these films against which the margins of the primary minerals appear partially resorbed. Furthermore, different styles of high field strength element fractionation [e.g. (Nb/Ta)N vs (Zr/Hf)N] are evident in the bulk-rocks and the clinopyroxenes that they host. In all of the Kilbourne Hole peridotites analysed, hand-picked, optically clean clinopyroxenes preserve a more unradiogenic Sr isotope signature than the corresponding bulk-rock. Hand-picked interstitial glass from KH03-16 reveals the most radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr of any component recovered from these xenoliths (87Sr/86Sr = 0·708043 ± 0·00009; [Sr] = 81 ppm). Similarly, the 143Nd/144Nd of the glass is amongst the most evolved of the peridotite components (143Nd/144Nd = 0·512893 ± 0·000012; [Nd] = 10 ppm). However, the host basalt (87Sr/86Sr = 0·703953 ± 0·00012; 143Nd/144Nd = 0·512873 ± 0·000013), similar in composition to that of the nearby, contemporaneous, Potrillo Volcanic Field basalts, contains nearly an order of magnitude more Sr and more than three times more Nd ([Sr] = 655 ppm; [Nd] = 34 ppm) than the interstitial glass. Despite the high Sr and Nd contents of the host basalt the evidence for basalt infiltration is scant, although the effects of melt–rock interaction, both in antiquity and more recently, are preserved in several xenoliths. Mixing between clinopyroxene and the host basalt cannot account for the full range of bulk-rock Sr–Nd isotope ratios; nearly half of the xenoliths require an additional component that could involve varying amounts of interstitial glass. In detail the behaviour of Sr and Nd isotopes has been decoupled, requiring multiple, temporally distinct, metasomatic events. Several bulk-rock samples require a further, as yet unidentified, component to explain the bulk-rock trace element mass balance and Sr–Nd isotope composition fully, implying that at least three episodes of melt–rock interaction, refertilization and metasomatism must have occurred prior to the arrival of the xenoliths at the surface in their host maar deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope compositions for 17 bulk-rock samples from the submarine Hana Ridge, Haleakala volcano, Hawaii, collected by three dives by ROV Kaiko during a joint Japan–US Hawaiian cruise in 2001. The Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope ratios for the submarine Hana Ridge lavas are similar to those of Kilauea lavas. This contrasts with the isotope ratios from the subaerial Honomanu lavas of the Haleakala shield, which are similar to Mauna Loa lavas or intermediate between the Kilauea and Mauna Loa fields. The observation that both the Kea and Loa components coexist in individual shields is inconsistent with the interpretation that the location of volcanoes within the Hawaiian chain controls the geographical distribution of the Loa and Kea trend geochemical characteristics. Isotopic and trace element ratios in Haleakala shield lavas suggest that a recycled oceanic crustal gabbroic component is present in the mantle source. The geochemical characteristics of the lavas combined with petrological modeling calculations using trace element inversion and pMELTS suggest that the melting depth progressively decreases in the mantle source during shield growth, and that the proportion of the recycled oceanic gabbroic component sampled by the melt is higher in the later stages of Hawaiian shields as the volcanoes migrate away from the central axis of the plume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incompatible element signatures of volcanic rocks forming Jeju Island, located at the eastern margin of the Asian continent, are identical to those of typical intraplate magmas. The source of these volcanic rocks may be a mantle plume, located immediately behind the SW Japan arc. Jeju plume magmas can be divided into three series, based on major and trace element abundances: high-alumina alkalic, low-alumina alkalic, and sub-alkalic. Mass-balance calculations indicate that the compositional variations within each magma series are largely governed by fractional crystallization of three chemically distinct parental magmas. The compositions of primary magmas for these series, using inferred residual mantle olivine compositions, suggest that the low-alumina alkalic and sub-alkalic magmas are generated at the deepest and shallowest depths by lowest and highest degrees of melting, respectively. These estimates, together with systematic differences in trace element and isotopic compositions, indicate that the upper mantle beneath Jeju Island is characterized by an increased degree of metasomatism and a change in major metasomatic hydrous minerals from amphibole to phlogopite with decreasing depth. The original plume material, having rather depleted geochemical characteristics, entrained shallower metasomatized uppermost mantle material, and segregated least-enriched low-alumina alkalic, moderately enriched high-alumina alkalic, and highly enriched sub-alkalic magmas, with decreasing depth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]