The Petrology and Geochemistry of Volcanic Rocks on Jeju Island: Plume Magmatism along the Asian Continental Margin

The incompatible element signatures of volcanic rocks formingJeju Island, located at the eastern margin of the Asian continent,are identical to those of typical intraplate magmas. The sourceof these volcanic rocks may be a mantle plume, located immediatelybehind the SW Japan arc. Jeju plume magmas can be divided intothree series, based on major and trace element abundances: high-aluminaalkalic, low-alumina alkalic, and sub-alkalic. Mass-balancecalculations indicate that the compositional variations withineach magma series are largely governed by fractional crystallizationof three chemically distinct parental magmas. The compositionsof primary magmas for these series, using inferred residualmantle olivine compositions, suggest that the low-alumina alkalicand sub-alkalic magmas are generated at the deepest and shallowestdepths by lowest and highest degrees of melting, respectively.These estimates, together with systematic differences in traceelement and isotopic compositions, indicate that the upper mantlebeneath Jeju Island is characterized by an increased degreeof metasomatism and a change in major metasomatic hydrous mineralsfrom amphibole to phlogopite with decreasing depth. The originalplume material, having rather depleted geochemical characteristics,entrained shallower metasomatized uppermost mantle material,and segregated least-enriched low-alumina alkalic, moderatelyenriched high-alumina alkalic, and highly enriched sub-alkalicmagmas, with decreasing depth. KEY WORDS: Jeju Island; magma genesis; mantle plume; subcontinental mantle     

Origin of polymict breccias on asteroids deduced from their pyroxene fragments

Abstract— Cumulate eucrite, noncumulate eucrite, and diogenite meteorites are considered to have come from the crust of one (or similar) parent asteroid. Howardites are regarded as regolith breccias of eucrites and diogenites, and polymict eucrites are regarded as polymict breccias of eucrites. These polymict breccias show many textural and chemical features. In order to gain a better understanding of the origin of polymict breccias and the origin of their components, we investigated four polymict breccias, Yamato (Y)-791439, Y-791192, Y-82009, and Y-82049 with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a chemical mapping system, and by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). We analyzed all pyroxene grains with chemical maps, classified them by chemical composition, and observed their chemistry and mineralogy in detail. The characteristics of pyroxenes suggest that the polymict breccias were generated by gathering locally ordinary eucrites and cumulate eucrites. The chemical-evolutionary features of the pyroxenes (such as homogenization, chemical zoning, and exsolution lamellae) suggest that there were at least two long annealing events and one short (or low-temperature) annealing event, separated by mixing events. Local heterogeneity on the asteroidal crust is also suggested.