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Anhydrous partial melting of an iron-rich mantle I: subsolidus phase assemblages and partial melting phase relations at 10 to 30 kbar

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Abstract

Anhydrous partial melting experiments, at 10 to 30 kbar from solidus to near liquidus temperature, have been performed on an iron-rich martian mantle composition, DW. The DW subsolidus assemblage from ≤5 kbar to at least 24 kbar is a spinel lherzolite. At 25 kbar garnet is stable at the solidus along with spinel. The clinopyroxene stable on the DW solidus at and above 10 kbar is a pigeonitic clinopyroxene. Pigeonitic clinopyroxene is the first phase to melt out of the spinel lherzolite assemblage at less than 20°C above the solidus. Spinel melts out of the assemblage about 50°C above the solidus followed by a 150° to 200°C temperature interval where melts are in equilibrium with orthopyroxene and olivine. The temperature interval over which pigeonitic clinopyroxene melts out of an iron-rich spinel lherzolite assemblage is smaller than the temperature interval over which augite melts out of an iron-poor spinel lherzolite assemblage. The dominant solidus assemblage in the source regions of the Tharsis plateau, and for a large percentage of the martian mantle, is a spinel lherzolite.

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Author notes

  1. Constance M. Bertka

    Present address: Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Arizona State University, USA

    Constance M. Bertka & John R. Holloway

  2. Department of Chemistry, Arizona State University, USA

    John R. Holloway

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  1. Constance M. Bertka
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  2. John R. Holloway
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Bertka, C.M., Holloway, J.R. Anhydrous partial melting of an iron-rich mantle I: subsolidus phase assemblages and partial melting phase relations at 10 to 30 kbar. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 115, 313–322 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00310770

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