Publication Date:
2022-10-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Bekaert, D. V., Gazel, E., Turner, S., Behn, M. D., de Moor, J. M., Zahirovic, S., Manea, V. C., Hoernle, K., Fischer, T. P., Hammerstrom, A., Seltzer, A. M., Kulongoski, J. T., Patel, B. S., Schrenk, M. O., Halldórsson, S. A., Nakagawa, M., Ramírez, C. J., Krantz, J. A., Yücel, M., Ballentine, C. J., Giovannelli, D., Lloyd, K. G., Barry, P. H. High (3)He/(4)He in central Panama reveals a distal connection to the Galápagos plume. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(47), (2021): e2110997118, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2110997118.
Description:
It is well established that mantle plumes are the main conduits for upwelling geochemically enriched material from Earth's deep interior. The fashion and extent to which lateral flow processes at shallow depths may disperse enriched mantle material far (〉1,000 km) from vertical plume conduits, however, remain poorly constrained. Here, we report He and C isotope data from 65 hydrothermal fluids from the southern Central America Margin (CAM) which reveal strikingly high 3He/4He (up to 8.9RA) in low-temperature (≤50 °C) geothermal springs of central Panama that are not associated with active volcanism. Following radiogenic correction, these data imply a mantle source 3He/4He 〉10.3RA (and potentially up to 26RA, similar to Galápagos hotspot lavas) markedly greater than the upper mantle range (8 ± 1RA). Lava geochemistry (Pb isotopes, Nb/U, and Ce/Pb) and geophysical constraints show that high 3He/4He values in central Panama are likely derived from the infiltration of a Galápagos plume–like mantle through a slab window that opened ∼8 Mya. Two potential transport mechanisms can explain the connection between the Galápagos plume and the slab window: 1) sublithospheric transport of Galápagos plume material channeled by lithosphere thinning along the Panama Fracture Zone or 2) active upwelling of Galápagos plume material blown by a “mantle wind” toward the CAM. We present a model of global mantle flow that supports the second mechanism, whereby most of the eastward transport of Galápagos plume material occurs in the shallow asthenosphere. These findings underscore the potential for lateral mantle flow to transport mantle geochemical heterogeneities thousands of kilometers away from plume conduits.
Description:
This work was principally supported by Grant G-2016-7206 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Deep Carbon Observatory to P.H.B. We also acknowledge the NSF awards (1144559, 1923915, and 2015789) to P.H.B., which partially supported this work. S.Z. was supported by the Australian Research Council Grant DE210100084 and a University of Sydney Robinson Fellowship. D.G. was partially supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program Grant Agreement No. 948972—COEVOLVE—ERC-2020-STG. This study was also supported in part by NSF award No. EAR 1826673 to E.G. Folkmar Hauff is acknowledged for contributing to the analysis of the La Providencia samples at GEOMAR.
Keywords:
Helium
;
Mantle plume
;
Slab window
;
Mantle flow
;
Geochemistry
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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