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An olivine-free mantle source of Hawaiian shield basalts

Nature volume 434, pages 590–597 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

More than 50 per cent of the Earth's upper mantle consists of olivine and it is generally thought that mantle-derived melts are generated in equilibrium with this mineral. Here, however, we show that the unusually high nickel and silicon contents of most parental Hawaiian magmas are inconsistent with a deep olivine-bearing source, because this mineral together with pyroxene buffers both nickel and silicon at lower levels. This can be resolved if the olivine of the mantle peridotite is consumed by reaction with melts derived from recycled oceanic crust, to form a secondary pyroxenitic source. Our modelling shows that more than half of Hawaiian magmas formed during the past 1 Myr came from this source. In addition, we estimate that the proportion of recycled (oceanic) crust varies from 30 per cent near the plume centre to insignificant levels at the plume edge. These results are also consistent with volcano volumes, magma volume flux and seismological observations.

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Figure 1: Compositions of olivines from mantle-derived rocks.
Figure 2: Parental melt and lava compositions, showing that Hawaiian shield parental melts are higher in Ni and Si than permitted in equilibrium with an olivine-bearing source, and that conventional models cannot explain this feature.
Figure 3: Model diagram of the Hawaiian mantle plume.
Figure 4: Hawaiian parental melts and lavas as mixtures of melts from two contrasting lithologies, olivine-free (reaction) pyroxenite and common peridotite.
Figure 5: Schematic map of present position of the Hawaiian mantle plume, modified from ref. 50.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the HSDP and KSDP teams, A.T. Anderson and A. Rocholl for providing samples; E. Yarosewich for supplying microprobe standards; B. Schulz-Dobrick for supervising the purchase and installation of the Jeol Jxa 8200 Electron Microprobe in the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry; E. Macsenaere-Riester for assistance with this; A. Gurenko and N. Groschopf for maintaining the microprobe; A. Yasevich, V. Sobolev and M. Kamenetsky for help in sample preparation; D. Kuzmin for help in electron probe analyses; D. Kuzmin, V. Kamenetsky and V. Batanova for providing unpublished olivine analyses; L. Danyushevsky for making access available to PETROLOG thermodynamic modelling software and for updating it for use with nickel; C. Herzberg, V. Kamenetsky, A. Gurenko, H. Dick, G. Woerner, C. Langmuir, P. Kelemen, L. Kogarko, I. Ryabchikov, A. Ariskin and D. DePaolo for discussions; and M. Garcia, L. Danyushevsky, S. Huang, M. Portnyagin, K. Putirka and D. Canil for comments that improved the clarity of the manuscript. This work was supported by a Wolfgang Paul Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to A.V.S. Partial support was received from the Russian Academy of Science and Russian Federation President's grants to A.V.S. and from ISES (Netherlands Research Centre for Integrated Solid Earth Science) to I.K.N.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie, Postfach 3060, 55020, Mainz, Germany

    Alexander V. Sobolev & Albrecht W. Hofmann

  2. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin street 19, 117975, Moscow, Russia

    Alexander V. Sobolev

  3. GeoForschungsZentrum, Telegrafenberg E, D-14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Stephan V. Sobolev

  4. Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, B. Gruzinskaya street 10, 123995, Moscow, Russia

    Stephan V. Sobolev

  5. Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Petrology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Igor K. Nikogosian

  6. Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences Department of Petrology, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Igor K. Nikogosian

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  1. Alexander V. Sobolev
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Correspondence to Alexander V. Sobolev.

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Supplementary Notes

This file contains Supplementary Methods (detailed explanations of geochemical and physical modeling), Supplementary Equations, Supplementary Tables S1-S3, Supplementary Figure S1 and additional references. (PDF 426 kb)

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Sobolev, A., Hofmann, A., Sobolev, S. et al. An olivine-free mantle source of Hawaiian shield basalts. Nature 434, 590–597 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03411

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