Heavy Mo isotope enrichment in the Pitcairn plume: Implications for the subduction cycle of anoxic sediments

•Submarine basaltic glasses from Pitcairn Island are uniformly high in δ98/95Mo.•Proterozoic pelagic sediments can explain radiogenic EM-1 and heavy Mo signatures.•Enriched “anoxic” signature found in both large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs).•Anoxic sediments buffer Precambrian subduction zone fluids to reducing conditions.•Subduction cycling of some redox sensitive metals to the mantle wedge was limited. Subduction redistributes elements between Earth's principal geochemical reservoirs, modifying the chemical composition of Earth's mantle, crust, atmosphere, and hydrosphere, and consequently having an impact on the evolution of life itself. Subduction of surface material that has been geochemically modified by low-temperature processes leads to mineralogical and chemical heterogeneities in mantle reservoirs over time and is recorded in modern ocean island basalts. One of the principal geochemical end members of the heterogeneous deep mantle, the enriched mantle 1 (EM-1) source of Pitcairn Island, has been attributed to the contribution of crustal material with vastly different chemical compositions and ages. The Mo isotope composition of lavas from Pitcairn Island constrains the nature of this recycled crustal component. Pitcairn lavas have elevated δ98/95Mo relative to the depleted mantle. The high δ98/95Mo is associated with high time-integrated 232Th/238U and 87Rb/86Sr, and low time-integrated 147Sm/144Nd and 238U/204Pb. These characteristics can be attributed to the recycling of nearly pristine pelagic sediments that were deposited in a Proterozoic anoxic deep-ocean into the sources of the Pitcairn Island lavas. The isotope composition of these lavas is similar to that of EM-1 hotspots from the South Atlantic, indicating the addition of reduced sediments in both of Earth's large low shear wave velocity provinces (LLSVPs). Consistent data from both locations imply that the subduction cycling of sedimentary redox-sensitive elements such as Mo, S, Se, and U into arc magmas was in these cases inefficient in the Precambrian and the chemical and isotopic signature of reduced sediments is preserved in the source of ocean island basalts bearing the EM-1 characteristics.