An Asthenospheric Upwelling Beneath Central Mongolia——Implications for Intraplate Surface Uplift and Volcanism

Intraplate processes,such as continental surface uplift and intraplate volcanism,are enigmatic and the underlying mechanisms responsible are not fully understood.Central Mongolia is an ideal natural laboratory for studying such processes because of its location in the continental interior far from tectonic plate boundaries.

Petrographical and mineral chemistry evidence to delineate the source/sources of the Central Indian Ocean Basin pumices

We present data pertaining to mineral assemblages and composition of the Central Indian Ocean Basin(CIOB)pumices.Eight groups of pumices were identified considering the presence of phenocrysts of plagioclase,clinopyroxene,orthopyroxene,hornblende and biotite together with the occurrence of quartz and glass.Pigeonite,fayalite and ulvospinelare reported for the first time from these pumices.In the eight groups,the modal percentage of the constituents are phenocrysts 3%to 19%(avg 9.6%),silicic glass 33%to 54%(avg 43%)and the rest is vesicles.Based on the above factors we have identified the possible sources of the CIOB pumices.The mineral compositions of plagioclase,pyroxenes,and biotite of the CIOB pumices were compared with those of Krakatau and Toba.Most of the plagioclase and pyroxene compositions resemble the Haranggoal Dacite Tuff of Toba and Krakatau.Considering the mineral assemblages and compositions,there are pumices which do not correlate to any of the above eruptions and are probably from yet unidentified source/sources.These sources could either be from nearby terrestrial volcanoes or intraplate seamounts present in the CIOB.In a global context,it is viable that petrological characteristics could be used as initial criteria to determine the source of pumices that occur at abyssal depths in the world ocean.

Opaque Mineralogy as a Tracer of Magmatic History of Volcanic Rocks: an Example from the Neogene-Quaternary Harrat Rahat Intercontinental Volcanic Field, North Western Saudi Arabia

The Neogene-Quaternary Harrat Rahat volcanic field is part of the major intercontinental Harrat fields in western Saudi Arabia. It comprises lava flows of olivine basalt and hawaiite, in addition to mugearite, benmorite, and trachyte that occur mainly as domes, tuff cones and lava flows. Based on opaque mineralogy and mineral chemistry, the Harrat Rahat volcanic varieties are distinguished into Group I （olivine basalt and hawaiite） and Group II （mugearite, benmorite and trachyte）. The maximum forsterite content （-85） is encountered in zoned forsteritic olivine of Group I, whereas olivine of Group II is characterized by intermediate （Fo=50）, fayalitic （Fo=25） and pure fayalite in the mugearite, benmorite and trachyte, respectively. The more evolved varieties of Group II contain minerals that show enrichment of Fe2＋, Mn2~ and Na~ that indicates normal fractional crystallization. The common occurrence of indicates that pS＋ becomes saturated in this coarse apatite with titanomagnetite in the benmorite rock variety and drops again in trachyte. Cr-spinel is recorded in Group I varieties only and the Cr# （0.5） suggests lherzolite as a possible restite of the Harrat Rahat volcanics. The plots of Cr# vs. the forsterite content （Fo） suggest two distinct trends, which are typical of mixing of two basaltic magmas of different sources and different degrees of partial melting. The bimodality of Harrat Rahat Cr-spinel suggests possible derivation from recycled MORB slab in the mantle as indicated by the presence of high-Al spinel. It is believed that the subcontinental lithospheric mantle was modified by pervious subduction process and played the leading role in the genesis of the Harrat Rahat intraplate volcanics. The trachytes of the Harrat Rahat volcanic field were formed most probably by melting of a lower crust at the mantle-crust boundary. The increase in fo2 causes a decrease in Cr203, and A1203, and a strong increase in the proportion of Fe3＋ and Mg# of spinel crystallizing from the basaltic melt at T -1200~C. The olivine-pyroxene and olivine-spinel geothermometers yielded equilibrium temperature in the range of 935-1025~C, whereas the range of 〈500-850~C from single-pyroxene thermometry indicates either post crystallization re- equilibrium of the clinopyroxene, or the mineral is xenocrystic and re-equilibrated in a cooling basaltic magma.

Zircon U-Pb ages and O-Hf isotopes of Quaternary trachytes from the East Sea:Implications for the genesis of low-δ^(18)O magmas

Quaternary intraplate magmatism formed several volcanic islands and seamounts,including Dokdo(DD),Ulleungdo(UD),Simheungtack(ST),Anyongbok,and Isabu in the southwest of the East Sea back-arc basin.In this study,we present whole-rock geochemical,zircon U–Pb age,and in situ O–Hf isotope data for the submerged volcanic rocks from DD,UD,and ST to provide new insights into the eruption timing of these volcanoes and constrain the magma evolution processes.All samples used in this study were trachytes and exhibited ferroan,alkalic,and metaluminous to weakly peraluminous characteristics.They showed light rare earth element(REE)-enriched patterns with(La/Yb)N ratios of 25.3–31.7 and mostly negative Eu anomalies in a chondrite-normalized REE plot.In addition,they were enriched in large-ion lithophile elements and high field strength elements;they exhibited positive Pb anomalies and strongly negative Ba,Sr,P,and Ti anomalies.The zircons yielded a weighted-mean 206Pb/238U age of 2.61,0.348–0.704,and 2.76–2.94 Ma for the DD,UD,and ST trachytes,respectively.All zircons exhibited lowerδ^(18)O values than normal depleted mantle values,regardless of the crystallization age and spatial distribution of volcanoes.Theδ^(18)O values showed no correlation with U contents or Th/U ratios,indicating that the lowδ^(18)O signatures were of primary magmatic origin.The Hf isotopic compositions of the zircons were relatively heterogeneous but predominately characterized by positive eHf values.Binary O–Hf mixing modeling revealed that low-δ^(18)O rocks with positive eHf values from the UD and ST volcanoes were derived from a hybrid source of recycled juvenile crustal materials with low-δ^(18)O and positive eHf signatures and an enriched mantle source with normalδ^(18)O and negative eHf values.The juvenile oceanic crust in the source was likely metasomatized by seawater at high temperatures prior to melting.In contrast,the felsic magma that formed the DD volcanoes may have assimilated with regional basement rocks(Triassic–Jurassic granitoids),resulting in increasedδ^(18)O values and decreased eHf values relative to those of the UD and ST volcanoes.Our study highlights the significant contribution of recycled oceanic crust materials to the generation of the Quaternary magmas.

Seamount chains and hotspot tracks:Superficially similar,deeply different

Nearly 80%of the seafloor extension has not been covered by high-resolution bathymetry,impeding direct observation of seamounts.Nevertheless,lists of seamount location and height at a global scale have been produced using different techniques.In this work four of such databases(publicly available)are compared with each other to assess their differences.Results identify large differences among databases that could have exerted strong influences on models of seamount production and associated geodynamic processes.Despite those differences,it is shown that all databases allow the identification of seamount lines both along the present-day Mid Ocean Ridge(MOR)system and on intraplate settings.Notably,those seamount lines do not coincide with the so-called hotspot tracks that commonly were defined by selectively focusing attention on the larger seamounts.Examination of all the databases also shows that distinction based only on seamount size between seamounts produced at Mid-Ocean Ridge(MOR)environments from those associated with mantle-plum fed-hotspot activity has been overestimated.This,combined with the fact that most seamount lines defined by the available databases can be traced back to past locations of MOR indicates that most of the present-day intraplate linear arrays of seamounts,which include some large seamounts,were not produced by the action of underlying mantle anomalies envisaged in the form of mantle plumes.The evidence presented here calls for a reassessment of the form in which volcanic and tectonic activities are conceptually related to each other.