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Partitioning of Ni between olivine and siliceous eclogite partial melt: experimental constraints on the mantle source of Hawaiian basalts

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Abstract

Olivine is abundant in Earth’s upper mantle and ubiquitous in basaltic lavas, but rarely occurs in eclogite. Partial melts of eclogite are, therefore, not in equilibrium with olivine, and will react with peridotite as they migrate through the upper mantle. If such melts erupt at Earth’s surface, their compositions will be highly modified and they may be olivine-saturated. We investigated experimentally the reaction between olivine and siliceous eclogite partial melt, and determined element partitioning between olivine and the melt produced by this reaction. Our results demonstrate that mixing of reacted eclogite partial melt with primitive basalt is capable of producing the positive correlation between melt SiO2 content and olivine Ni content observed in some Hawaiian lavas. Experiments were carried out by equilibrating eclogite partial melt or basalt with San Carlos olivine at 1 bar and 1,201–1,350°C. Our results show that eclogite partial melts equilibrated with mantle olivine retain their high SiO2, low FeO and MgO characteristics. Further, olivine-melt partition coefficients for Ni measured in these experiments are significantly larger than for basalt. Mixing of these melts with primitive Hawaiian tholeiitic lavas results in crystallization of high-Ni olivines similar to those in Makapuu-stage Koolau lavas, even though the mixed magmas have only moderate Ni contents. This results from a hyperbolic increase of the Ni partition coefficient with increasing polymerization of the mixed melt. Note that while eclogite partial melt in contact with peridotite will equilibrate with pyroxene as well as olivine, this will have the effect of buffering the activity of SiO2 in the reacted melt at a higher level. Therefore, an eclogite partial melt equilibrated with harzburgite will have higher SiO2 than one equilibrated with dunite, enhancing the effects observed in our experiments. Our results demonstrate that an olivine-free “hybrid” pyroxenite source is not required to explain the presence of high-Ni olivines in Hawaiian lavas and, therefore, indicate that the proportion of eclogite in the Hawaiian plume is less than has been estimated in recent studies.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are greatly indebted to Stanley Hart for his continuous support and grand vision on issues regarding Ni partitioning. His 1978 study continues to enlighten the authors as they move forward. Authors are grateful to M.B. Baker and F.A. Frey for providing thoughtful and constructive reviews. They also want to thank Paul Asimow, John Eiler, Nobu Shimizu, Michael Baker, Huiyu Li, Ed Stolper and Greg Hirth for helpful discussions. Z.W. thanks, Nilanjan Chatterjee, Etienne Medard, Jay Barr, Tim Grove for help with the electron probe analyses. G.G. is grateful to Tim Grove for making his lab available during the early portions of this study. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants no. EAR-0087525 and OCE-0118198.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Falmouth, MA, 02543, USA

    Zhengrong Wang & Glenn A. Gaetani

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  1. Zhengrong Wang
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  2. Glenn A. Gaetani
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Correspondence to Zhengrong Wang.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Wang, Z., Gaetani, G.A. Partitioning of Ni between olivine and siliceous eclogite partial melt: experimental constraints on the mantle source of Hawaiian basalts. Contrib Mineral Petrol 156, 661–678 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-008-0308-y

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