1. What Zinc Isotopes Can and Cannot Tell About Deep Carbon Cycling
- Author
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Tappe, Sebastian, Rosca, Carolina, Stracke, Andreas, König, Stephan, Strauss, Harald, Schoenberg, Ronny, Tappe, Sebastian, Rosca, Carolina, Stracke, Andreas, König, Stephan, Strauss, Harald, and Schoenberg, Ronny
- Abstract
Zinc isotopes in primitive magmatic rocks have been used recently to interrogate the origins of mantle heterogeneity. Of special interest are the high ¿66Zn values obtained for OIBs and continental alkali basalts, and this signature hints at recycled carbon-bearing oceanic crust (including carbonate sediments) in their mantle sources. Other studies argue however that large ¿66Zn fractionation results from the melting process, based on correlations between the degree of partial melting and ¿66Zn of basaltic to komatiitic lavas. To further explore the utility of zinc in the study of deep volatile cycles, we investigate the ¿66Zn of kimberlites and lamproites from southern Africa. These rocks formed by H2O-CO2 fluxed partial melting of metasomatized peridotite at >180 km depths, and their contrasting Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic compositions indicate distinct sources near the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. Both magma types contain notable amounts of carbonates with mantle-like ¿13C values. In keeping with the discrete Sr-Nd-Hf isotope groupings, kimberlites and lamproites have different ¿66Zn compositions, with mean values of 0.33±0.07¿ (n=22) and 0.25±0.06¿ (n=18), respectively. They have low zinc concentrations (64±35 and 51±29 ppm), more similar to MORBs (64±25 ppm) than to OIBs (120±40 ppm). Given that the degree of partial melting is equally low for kimberlites and lamproites (<1%), our study provides evidence for significant zinc isotope heterogeneity in the deep upper mantle. Modelling shows that the kimberlite and lamproite zinc systematics fit with near-solidus melting of asthenospheric and refractory cratonic peridotites, respectively. The alkali-metasomatic components required to explain the petrology of lamproites do not influence the zinc systematics of carbonated mantle melts, probably owed to the compatible nature of zinc in mineralogically exotic metasomes. Although the origins of kimberlites and OIBs are frequently compared because of their apparent link to
- Published
- 2023