Garnet-field Melting and Late-stage Refertilization in 'Residual' Abyssal Peridotites from the Central Indian Ridge

The role of residual garnet during melting beneath mid-oceanridges has been the subject of many recent investigations. Toaddress this issue from the perspective of melting residues,we obtained major and trace element mineral chemistry of residualabyssal peridotites from the Central Indian Ridge. Many clinopyroxeneshave ratios of middle to heavy rare earth elements (MREE/HREE)that are too low to be explained by melting in the stabilityfield of spinel peridotite alone. Several percent of meltingmust have occurred at higher pressures in the garnet peridotitestability field. Application of new trace element partitioningmodels, which predict that HREE are compatible in high-pressureclinopyroxene, cannot fully explain the fractionation of theMREE from the HREE. Further, many samples show textural andchemical evidence for refertilization, such as relative enrichmentsof highly incompatible trace elements with respect to moderatelyincompatible trace elements. Therefore, highly incompatibleelements, which are decoupled from major and moderately incompatibletrace elements, are useful to assess late-stage processes, suchas melt entrapment, melt–rock reaction and veining. Moderatelyincompatible trace elements are less affected by such late-stageprocesses and thus useful to infer the melting history of abyssalperidotites. KEY WORDS: abyssal peridotites; mantle melting; garnet