Title
Crustal controls on light noble gas isotope variability along the andean volcanic arc
Date Issued
01 January 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
European Association of Geochemistry
Abstract
This study combines new noble gas data from fluid inclusions in minerals from Sabancaya, Ubinas, and El Misti (CVZ, Peru) and Villarica (South Chile, SVZ) with a revised noble gas compilation in the Andes, to identify systematic along arc variations in helium isotope compositions. We find 3He/4He ratios varying from 8.8 RA (Colombia) to 7.4 RA (Ecuador) within the NVZ, and only as high as 6.4 RA in the CVZ (RA is the atmospheric 3He/4He ratio of 1.39 × 10-6). These distinct isotope compositions cannot be explained by variable radiogenic 4He production via slab fluid transport of U and Th in the mantle wedge, since both NVZ and CVZ share similar slab sediment inputs (Th/La ≈ 0.08-0.13). Instead, the progressively more radiogenic 3He/4He signatures in Ecuador and Peru reflect 4He addition upon magma ascent/ storage in the crust, this being especially thick in Peru (>70 km) and Ecuador (>50 km) relative to Colombia (∼30-45 km). The intermediate compositions in the North (8.0 RA) and South (7.9 RA) Chile, both high sediment flux margins, mostly reflect a more efficient delivery of radiogenic He in the wedge from the subducted (U-Th-rich) terrigenous sediments. Our results bring strong evidence for the major role played by crustal processes in governing noble gas compositions along continental arcs.
Start page
45
End page
49
Volume
19
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería ambiental y geológica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85120911543
Source
Geochemical Perspectives Letters
ISSN of the container
2410339X
Sponsor(s)
Two reviewers substantially improved this paper and are gratefully acknowledged. We thank Marco Rivera (OVI-INGEMMET) for his support during fieldwork in Peru and Aaron Sancho for his work on Chaillupén samples (Villarica). INGV-Palermo provided the analytical facilities. We thank Mariano Tantillo and Mariagrazia Misseri for their support in sample preparation and noble gas analysis. The fieldwork portion of this work was funded by the DECADE initiative, from the Deep Carbon Observatory - Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This study also received funding from Miur under grant PRIN2017-2017LMNLAW.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus