Trace element characteristics of partial melts produced by melting of metabasalts at high pressures: Constraints on the formation condition of adakitic melts

Modern adakite, Archean tonalite-trondhjemite- granodiorite (TTG) and adakitic rocks derived from lower continental crust are high Na and Al felsic rocks and are characterized by strong heavy REE and Y de- pletion and high Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios, which sug…

Trace element characteristics of partial melts produced by melting of metabasalts at high pressures: Constraints on the formation condition of adakitic melts

Experiments were conducted on a natural basalt (with 5 wt.% added H₂O) at 1.0–2.5 GPa and 900–1100°C. Experimental products include partial melts (quenched glasses) + residual mineral assemblages of amphibolite or eclogite. Electron microprobe and LAM-ICP-MS were used to determine major and trace element compositions of these quenched melts, respectively. Major element compositions of all the melts are tonalitic-trondhjemitic, similar to adakite. Their trace element characteristics are controlled by coexisting residual minerals. Signatures of adakite such as high Sr/Y, low HREE and negative Nb-Ta anomaly, etc. are present only in the melts coexisting with residual assemblages containing rutile and garnet (rutile-bearing eclogite or rutile-bearing amphibole-eclogite). Garnet leads to HREE depletion in melts, whereas rutile controls Nb and Ta partitioning during the partial melting and causes negative Nb-Ta anomaly in melts. Therefore, in addition to garnet, rutile is also a necessary residual phase during the generation of adakite or TTG magmas to account for the negative Nb-Ta anomaly of the magmas. The depth for the generation of adakite/TTG magmas via melting of metabasalt must be more than about 50 km based on the approximate 1.5 GPa minimum-pressure for rutile stability in the partial melting field of hydrous basalt.