Experimental phase and melting relations of metapelite in the upper mantle: implications for the petrogenesis of intraplate magmas

We performed a series of piston-cylinder experiments on a synthetic pelite starting material over a pressure and temperature range of 3.0-5.0 GPa and 1,100-1,600 degrees C, respectively, to examine the melting behaviour and phase relations of sedimentary rocks at upper mantle conditions. The anhydrous pelite solidus is between 1,150 and 1,200 degrees C at 3.0 GPa and close to 1,250 degrees C at 5.0 GPa, whereas the liquidus is likely to be at 1,600 degrees C or higher at all investigated pressures, giving a large melting interval of over 400 degrees C. The subsolidus paragenesis consists of quartz/coesite, feldspar, garnet, kyanite, rutile, +/- clinopyroxene +/- apatite. Feldspar, rutile and apatite are rapidly melted out above the solidus, whereas garnet and kyanite are stable to high melt fractions (>70%). Clinopyroxene stability increases with increasing pressure, and quartz/coesite is the sole liquidus phase at all pressures. Feldspars are relatively Na-rich [K/(K + Na) = 0.4-0.5] at 3.0 GPa, but are nearly pure K-feldspar at 5.0 GPa. Clinopyroxenes are jadeite and Ca-eskolaite rich, with jadeite contents increasing with pressure. All supersolidus experiments produced alkaline dacitic melts with relatively constant SiO2 and Al2O3 contents. At 3.0 GPa, initial melting is controlled almost exclusively by feldspar and quartz, giving melts with K2O/Na2O similar to 1. At 4.0 and 5.0 GPa, low-fraction melting is controlled by jadeite-rich clinopyroxene and K-rich feldspar, which leads to compatible behaviour of Na and melts with K2O/Na2O >> 1. Our results indicate that sedimentary protoliths entrained in upwelling heterogeneous mantle domains may undergo melting at greater depths than mafic lithologies to produce ultrapotassic dacitic melts. Such melts are expected to react with and metasomatise the surrounding peridotite, which may subsequently undergo melting at shallower levels to produce compositionally distinct magma types. This scenario may account for many of the distinctive geochemical characteristics of EM-type ocean island magma suites. Moreover, unmelted or partially melted sedimentary rocks in the mantle may contribute to some seismic discontinuities that have been observed beneath intraplate and island-arc volcanic regions.