Indian MORB-source mantle: not just a case of plume contamination or sediment recycling

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Mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) from the Indian Ocean have long been known for their distinctive Pb and Sr isotope compositions relative to other MORBs. Most models for their origin involve contamination of a "normal" depleted mantle by a distinctly enriched material, the most favoured being (1) recycled oceanic crust plus pelagic sediments, (2) mantle plumes and/or (3) delaminated sub-continental lithosphere. Based on quantitative mixing models, Rehkämper and Hofmann (1997) showed that recycling of an old, compositionally heterogeneous component could explain the range of Sr, Nd and Pb isotope compositions for Indian MORBs. Their model predicts that the predominant recycled component is ancient (1.5Ga) altered ocean crust, with pelagic sediment comprising less than 10% of the contaminant. However, Hf-Nd isotope systematics are difficult to explain in this way because Indian MORBs have higher eHf values (i.e. greater time-integrated depletion of Lu relative to Hf) for a given eNd than nearly all other MORBs - and considerably higher than any of the enriched materials suggested as contaminants. Essentially, Indian and Pacific MORBs form separate and parallel arrays in Nd-Hf isotope space. What is required is a mechanism that involves not only enrichment of some elements, but also relative depletion of others. Based on new Nd-Hf isotope data for Indian and Pacific MORBs from the Australian-Antarctic Discordance, we propose that the distinctive Indian MORB source composition can be explained by recycling of subduction-modified mantle. This mantle could have been generated within the convergent margin that existed off the east coast of Gondwana throughout most of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras. It was subsequently recycled into the upper mantle beneath Gondwana and became the source of Indian MORBs following the break-up of the Gondwanan supercontinent. Rehkämper, M., and A. W. Hofmann, Recycled ocean crust and sediment in Indian Ocean MORB, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 147, 93-106, 1997.

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