Petrology and Trace Element Geochemistry of the Honolulu Volcanics, Oahu: Implications for the Oceanic Mantle below Hawaii

The Honolulu Volcanics comprises small volume, late-stage (post-erosional)vents along rifts cutting the older massive Koolau tholeüticshield on Oahu, Hawaii. Most of these lavas and tuff of theHonolulu Volcanics have geochemical features expected of near-primarymagmas derived from a peridotite source containing Fo_87–89olivine; e. g. 100 Mg/(Mg + Fe²⁺) >65, >250 p. p. m. Ni,and presence of ultramafic mantle xenoliths at 18 of the 37vents. Consequently, the geochemistry of the alkali olivinebasalt, basanite, nephelinite and nepheline melilitite lavasand tuff of the Honolulu Volcanics have been used to deducethe composition of their mantle source and the conditions underwhich they were generated by partial melting in the mantle. Compositional trends in 30 samples establish that the magmaswere derived by partial melting of a garnet (<10 per cent)Iherzolite source, which we infer to have been carbon-bearing,from analogy with experimental results. This source was isotopicallyhomogeneous (Sr, Lanphere & Dalrymple, 1980; Pb, Sun, 1980;Nd, Roden et al., 1981), and we infer that the source was compositionallyuniform in all major-element oxides except TiO₂, in compatibletrace elements (Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Co and Ni), and in highly incompatibletrace elements (P, Th, La, Ce). However, the source appearsto have been heterogeneous in TiO₂, Zr, Hf, Nb, and Ta, elementsthat were not strongly incompatible during partial melting.Some nepheline melilitite samples may be derived from a sourcewith distinct Sc and heavy-rare-earth-elements (REE) abundances,or which had a phase or phases controlling the distributionof these elements. The relatively limited abundance range for several elements,such as Ti, Zr, Nb, is partly a consequence of the low degreesof melting inferred for the series (2 per cent for nephelinemelilitite, 11 per cent for alkali olivine basalt), which failedto exhaust the source in minor residual phases. We infer thatthese residual phases probably included phlogopite, amphibole,and another Ti-rich phase (an oxide?), but not apatite. In comparison with estimates of a primordial mantle compositionand the mantle source of mid-oceanic-ridge basalt the garnetperidotite source of the Honolulu Volcanics was increasinglyenriched in the sequence heavy REEs, Y, Tb, Ti, Sm, Zr, andHf all <P <Nd <Sr Ce <La <Nb Ta. A multi-stagehistory for the source of the Honolulu Volcanics is requiredbecause this enrichment was superimposed on a mantle that hadbeen previously depleted in incompatible elements, as indicatedby the relatively low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio, high ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratioand low contents of K, Rb, Ba, and Th. The composition of thesource of the Honolulu Volcanics differs from the source ofthe previously erupted tholeiitic shield. The modal mineralogyof the source of the Honolulu Volcanics is not represented inthe upper-mantle xenoliths, e. g. the garnet pyroxenite andolivine-poor garnet Iherzolite included within the lavas andtuff of the unit.