The origin of reversed geochemical zoning in the northern New Hebrides volcanic arc

Integration of petrographic and geochemical data on each island in the Banks Group, northern Vanuatu (New Hebrides) has revealed a decrease in K₂O (and related incompatible elements) across the islands, away from the New Hebrides trench. The correlation with depth to the Benioff zone is therefore the reverse of that typically found in island arcs. REE evidence and source modelling indicates that this variation represents a progressive depletion in LREE/HREE in the upper mantle, laterally away from the trench and a progressive increase in partial melting of the source, in the same direction. These variations in chemistry are attributed to an earlier west-dipping Miocene subduction system, and the variation in degree of partial melting to the location of the islands with respect to the active back-arc basin. An enrichment of the upper mantle in the Miocene is ascribed to the ascent of hydrous fluids enriched in incompatible elements, from the west-dipping Benioff zone, and subsequent reaction with the overlying upper mantle. The model thus envisages approximately contemporaneous development of the Central Chain volcanoes and the backarc basin in the late Pliocene, with partial melting of hydrous, laterally zoned upper mantle resulting from the convective thermal regime associated with the rifting apart of the back-arc basin. The role of the present subduction regime in magma generation is considered to be very limited.