Melting the hydrous, subarc mantle: the origin of primitive andesites

This experimental study is the first comprehensive investigation of the melting behavior of an olivine + orthopyroxene ± spinel—bearing fertile mantle (FM) composition as a function of variable pressure and water content. The fertile composition was enriched with a metasomatic slab component of ≤0.5 % alkalis and investigated from 1135 to 1470 °C at 1.0–2.0 GPa. A depleted lherzolite with 0.4 % alkali addition was also studied from 1225 to 1240 °C at 1.2 GPa. Melts of both compositions were water-undersaturated: fertile lherzolite melts contained 0–6.4 wt% H2O, and depleted lherzolite melts contained ~2.5 wt% H2O. H2O contents of experimental glasses are measured using electron microprobe, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and synchrotron-source reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, a novel technique for analyzing H2O in petrologic experiments. Using this new dataset in conjunction with results from previous hydrous experimental studies, a thermobarometer and a hygrometer–thermometer are presented to determine the conditions under which primitive lavas were last in equilibration with the mantle. These predictive models are functions of H2O content and pressure, respectively. A predictive melting model is also presented that calculates melt compositions in equilibrium with an olivine + orthopyroxene ± spinel residual assemblage (harzburgite). This model quantitatively predicts the following influences of H2O on mantle lherzolite melting: (1) As melting pressure increases, melt compositions become more olivine-normative, (2) as melting extent increases, melt compositions become depleted in the normative plagioclase component, and (3) as melt H2O content increases, melts become more quartz-normative. Natural high-Mg# [molar Mg/(Mg + Fe2+)], high-MgO basaltic andesite and andesite lavas—or primitive andesites (PAs)—contain high SiO2 contents at mantle-equilibrated Mg#s. Their compositional characteristics cannot be readily explained by melting of mantle lherzolite under anhydrous conditions. This study shows that experimental melts of a FM peridotite plus the addition of alkalis reproduce the compositions of natural PAs in SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, Cr2O3, MgO, and Na2O at 1.0–1.2 GPa and H2O contents of 0–7 wt%. Our results also suggest that PAs form under a maximum range of extents of melting from F = 0.2–0.3. The CaO contents of the melts produced are 1–5 wt% higher than the natural samples. This is not a result of a depleted source composition or of extremely high extents of melt but is potentially caused by a very low CaO content contribution from deeper in the mantle wedge.