REE-fractionated trachytes and dacites from Papua New Guinea and their relationship to andesite petrogenesis

Minor trachyte and dacite temporally associated with, but spatially separated from, arc-trench type volcanoes in Papua New Guinea have distinctive REE abundances similar to experimentally produced and theoretically predicted partial melts of eclogite. However, modelling based on small amounts of equilibrium partial melting indicates that only fractionation involving a garnet-dominated residuum can account for the observed REE patterns if the source rock was subducted oceanic basalt. If the source was geochemically evolved, other mineral phases (e.g., amphibole) are possible in the residuum, and there is no necessity to postulate that the downgoing slab was the source for these magmas. The REE fractionated trachytes and dacites appear to be a part of the nearby late Cenozoic volcanic provinces, and possibly represent minor partial melts which only in unusual tectonic situations arrive unmodified at the Earth's surface.