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Liquids in equilibrium with peridotitic mineral assemblages at high water pressures

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Abstract

Pressure-temperature conditions for which “andesitic” liquids (∼60% SiO2) may coexist with mineral assemblages of the type magnesian olivine + orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene±amphibole±phlogopite have been investigated, both by means of partial melting experiments on the pyrolite model composition, and by experiments involving addition of olivine to andesite or basaltic andesite compositions at or near their liquidus temperatures. In the latter experiments, reaction relationships between quartz-normative liquid and olivine were made to proceed until olivine persisted. The composition of the final liquid in equilibrium with olivine (plus pyroxenes etc.) was then estimated by microprobe analysis of its quench products (glass, quench crystals). The inferred liquid compositions were tested for equilibrium with coexisting crystals using criteria based on mass balance within the total assemblage, equilibrium element partition relationships, and the requirement that the liquidus temperatures and near-liquidus crystalline phases of these compositions should closely match the temperature of the original olivine-addition experiment and the crystalline phases developed during it.

At 1000° C–1050° C, liquids which satisfy these criteria for equilibrium with assemblages which include olivine are “andesitic” (58–60% SiO2, 5–12% normative Qz) only at water pressures ≤ 10kb. At 15 kb, liquids in equilibrium with olivine at 1000° C and 980° C have ∼56% SiO2, high alkali contents, and 5–10% normative olivine. Similar compositions are in equilibrium with orthopyroxene and garnet alone at 20 kb. These results show that andesitic magmas are unlikely to be produced by melting of a peridotitic mantle at pressures >10 kb (depths>35 km). If hydrous, but otherwise geochemically primitive peridotitic compositions are partially melted at pressures<10 kb, then “andesitic” products will be much more magnesian and poorer in alkalies than typical natural andesites. These conclusions raise serious difficulties for models of andesite genesis by the melting of hydrous peridotitic mantle immediately overlying Benioff zones.

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  1. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T.

    I. A. Nicholls

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Nicholls, I.A. Liquids in equilibrium with peridotitic mineral assemblages at high water pressures. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 45, 289–316 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371749

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