The distribution of fluid mobile and other incompatible trace elements in orthopyroxene from mantle wedge peridotites

Orthopyroxene is especially suited to decode and testify to the behavior of highly immobile elements during hydrous mantle melting. Laser ablation ICP-MS analyses from orthopyroxene hosted within peridotite from the Coast Range ophiolite (CRO) demonstrates that Group A peridotites (lherzolites) have similar compositions to mid-ocean-ridge abyssal peridotite, whereas other peridotites (Groups B and C; harzburgites) retain depleted signatures, but display 'spoon-shaped' enrichments for the light-REE. These patterns are consistent with variable degrees of partial melting of MORB-source asthenosphere initiated within the garnet stability field (< 10%) and continuing into the spinel stability field (< 15%). A few samples may have been subjected to subsequent melt/rock interaction. The supra-subduction zone (SSZ) environment represented by the CRO is illustrated by enriched fluid mobile elements (Li, Be, B, Pb) in all samples - up to 200 × depleted-MORB mantle (DMM). New applications of trace-element addition calculations [Shervais J. and Jean M.M. (2012) Inside the subduction factory: Modeling fluid mobile element enrichment in the mantle wedge above a subduction zone. GCA 95, 270-285] modified for orthopyroxene reveals that tens to hundreds of ppm were added to the DMM-source region. Our purpose is to demonstrate that orthopyroxene, in the absence of clinopyroxene, can be a constructive (and perhaps better) indicator of tectonic environment and magmatic processes that occurred within the North American Cordillera mantle wedge. Through this investigation we have captured all three stages of Coast Range ophiolite petrogenesis: starting with initial SSZ-coupled forearc spreading dominated by decompression melting, to a mature subduction zone with fluid-assisted partial melting, and the transition between the two.