Subduction factory processes beneath the Guguan cross-chain, Mariana Arc: no role for sediments, are serpentinites important?

We need to understand chemical recycling at convergent margins and how chemical interactions between subducted slab and the overlying mantle wedge affect mantle evolution and magmagenesis. This requires distinguishing contributions from recycled individual subducted components as well as those contributed by the mantle. We do this by examining magmatic products generated at different depths above a subduction zone, in an intra-oceanic arc setting. The Guguan cross-chain in the intra-oceanic Mariana arc overlies subducted Jurassic Pacific plate lithosphere at depths of ~125--230 km and erupts mostly basalt. Basalts from rear-arc volcanoes are more primitive than those from the magmatic front, in spite of being derived by lower degrees of melting of less-depleted mantle. Rear-arc magmas also show higher temperatures and pressures of equilibration. Coexisting mineral compositions become more MORB- or OIB-like with increasing height above the subduction zone. Trace element and isotopic variations indicate that the subduction component in cross-chain lavas diminishes with increasing depth to the subduction zone, except for water contents. There is little support for the idea that melting beneath the Mariana Trough back-arc basin depleted the source region of arc magmas, but melting to form rear-arc volcanoes may have depleted the source of magmatic front volcanoes. Enrichments in rear-arc lavas were not caused by sediment melting; the data instead favor an OIB-type mantle that has been modestly affected by subduction zone fluids. Our most important conclusion is that sediment fluids or melts are not responsible for the K--h relationship and other cross-chain chemical and isotopic variations. We speculate that an increasing role for supercritical fluids released from serpentinites interacting with modestly enriched mantle might be responsible for cross-chain geochemical and isotopic variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]