Experimental petrology of peridotites, including effects of water and carbon on melting in the Earth’s upper mantle

For over 50 years, the use of high-pressure piston/cylinder apparatus combined with an increasing diversity of microbeam analytical techniques has enabled the study of mantle peridotite compositions and of magmas derived by melting in the upper mantle. The experimental studies have been guided by the petrology and geochemistry of peridotites from diverse settings and by the remarkable range of mantle-derived magma types. Recent experimental study using FTIR spectroscopy to monitor water content of minerals has shown that fertile lherzolite (MORB-source upper mantle) at ~1,000 °C can store ~200 ppm H 2 O in defect sites in nominally anhydrous minerals (olivine, pyroxenes, garnet and spinel). Water in excess of 200 ppm stabilizes amphibole (pargasite) at P 3 GPa, water in excess of 200 ppm appears as an aqueous vapour phase and this depresses the temperature of the upper mantle solidus. Provided the uppermost mantle (lithosphere) has H 2 O 500 ppm H 2 O) overlying the ‘depleted’ MORB source (~200 ppm H 2 O). From the study of primitive MOR picrites, the modern mantle potential temperature for MORB petrogenesis is ~1,430 °C. The intersection of the 1,430 °C adiabat with the vapour-saturated lherzolite solidus at ~230 km suggests that upwelling beneath mid-ocean ridges begins around this depth. In intraplate volcanism, diapiric upwelling begins from shallower depths and lower temperatures within the asthenosphere and the upwelling lherzolite is enriched in water, carbonate and incompatible elements. Magmas including olivine melilitites, olivine nephelinites, basanites, alkali picrites and tholeiitic picrites are consequences of increasing melt fraction and decreasing pressure at melt segregation. Major element, trace element and isotopic characteristics of island chain or ‘hot-spot’ magmas show that they sample geochemically distinct co