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The chemical structure of the Hawaiian mantle plume

Nature volume 436, pages 837–840 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The Hawaiian–Emperor volcanic island and seamount chain is usually attributed to a hot mantle plume, located beneath the Pacific lithosphere, that delivers material sourced from deep in the mantle to the surface1,2,3,4,5. The shield volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands are distributed in two curvilinear, parallel trends (termed ‘Kea’ and ‘Loa’), whose rocks are characterized by general geochemical differences2,3,4,5. This has led to the proposition that Hawaiian volcanoes sample compositionally distinct, concentrically zoned, regions of the underlying mantle plume4,5. Melt inclusions, or samples of local magma ‘frozen’ in olivine phenocrysts during crystallization, may record complexities of mantle sources6, thereby providing better insight into the chemical structure of plumes. Here we report the discovery of both Kea- and Loa-like major and trace element compositions in olivine-hosted melt inclusions in individual, shield-stage Hawaiian volcanoes—even within single rock samples. We infer from these data that one mantle source component may dominate a single lava flow, but that the two mantle source components are consistently represented to some extent in all lavas, regardless of the specific geographic location of the volcano. We therefore suggest that the Hawaiian mantle plume is unlikely to be compositionally concentrically zoned. Instead, the observed chemical variation is probably controlled by the thermal structure of the plume.

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Figure 1: Map of the Hawaiian islands.
Figure 2: Variation of major element ratio in bulk rocks compared to melt inclusions.
Figure 3: Variation of trace element ratios in bulk rocks compared to melt inclusions.
Figure 4: Variation of trace element ratios in melt inclusions compared to oceanic crust basalt.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. A. Frey for comments and suggestions, and M. F. Coffin, L. Danyushevsky, A. W. Hofmann, J. Lassiter, D. A. Clague, S. Escrig, D. Weis and K. Putirka for discussions, comments and technical advice. C. Herzberg, J. M. Rhodes and M. Kurz provided constructive criticism that led to improvements in the manuscript. Z.-Y.R., S.I. and N.H. are grateful to the JSPS programme for funding.

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Author notes

  1. Stephanie Ingle

    Present address: School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, POST 615A, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology 2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, 152-8551, Japan

    Zhong-Yuan Ren, Stephanie Ingle, Eiichi Takahashi, Naoto Hirano & Takafumi Hirata

  2. Institute for Frontier Research on Earth Evolution, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Natsushima-cho 2-15, Kanagawa, 237-0061, Yokosuka, Japan

    Eiichi Takahashi

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Correspondence to Zhong-Yuan Ren.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Table S1

Major and trace element compositions of olivine-hosted melt inclusions from submarine Hana Ridge lavas, Haleakala volcano, and submarine Makapuu stage lavas of Koolau volcano (XLS 102 kb)

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Ren, ZY., Ingle, S., Takahashi, E. et al. The chemical structure of the Hawaiian mantle plume. Nature 436, 837–840 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03907

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