Slab melting in the Aleutians: implications of an ion probe study of clinopyroxene in primitive adakite and basalt

An ion probe study of trace elements in Mg-rich clinopyroxene phenocrysts in primitive Aleutian lavas provides constraints on the genesis of Aleutian adakites, and possible insights into the source of common Aleutian magmas. Clinopyroxene (cpx) phenocrysts in the primitive adakites have high Sr and Nd/Yb compared to cpx in Aleutian basalts. In the adakites, Sr and Nd/Yb are highest for high Mg# cpx, and these concentrations decrease toward lower Mg# compositions. These trends are the opposite of those seen in basalt cpx which generally show increasing incompatible trace element contents with decreasing Mg#, and are unlike antithetic compatible–incompatible trace element trends produced by chemical or kinetic effects of crystal growth. Petrographic observations and major and trace element zonation in cpx phenocrysts indicate that primitive Aleutian adakites are in part the product of mixing between primitive and relatively evolved magmas. The adakite trace element signature (high Sr, Nd/Yb) is clearly associated with the primitive mixing end-member. This observation supports the idea that adakites are derived by equilibration of slab melts with mantle olivine, and appears to rule out an origin by melting in the lower crust. Adakites are relatively rare in the Aleutians, but arc-wide correlations between Sr and La/Yb indicates that an adakite-type slab melt component may be present in the magmatic source throughout the arc.