Short-Lived Radioactivity and Magma Genesis

Short-lived decay products of uranium and thorium have half-lives and chemistries sensitive to the processes and time scales of magma genesis, including partial melting in the mantle and magmatic differentiation in the crust. Radioactive disequilibrium between (238)U, (230)Th, and (226)Ra is widespread in volcanic rocks. These disequilibria and the isotopic composition of thorium depend especially on the extent and rate of melting as well as the presence and composition of vapor during melting. The duration of mantle melting may be several hundred millennia, whereas ascent times are a few decades to thousands of years. Differentiation of most magmas commonly occurs within a few millennia, but felsic ones can be tens of millennia old upon eruption.

Not So Hot "Hot Spots" in the Oceanic Mantle

Excess volcanism and crustal swelling associated with hot spots are generally attributed to thermal plumes upwelling from the mantle. This concept has been tested in the portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between 34 degrees and 45 degrees (Azores hot spot). Peridotite and basalt data indicate that the upper mantle in the hot spot has undergone a high degree of melting relative to the mantle elsewhere in the North Atlantic. However, application of various geothermometers suggests that the temperature of equilibration of peridotites in the mantle was lower, or at least not higher, in the hot spot than elsewhere. The presence of H(2)O-rich metasomatized mantle domains, inferred from peridotite and basalt data, would lower the melting temperature of the hot spot mantle and thereby reconcile its high degree ofmelting with the lack of a mantle temperature anomaly. Thus, some so-called hot spots might be melting anomalies unrelated to abnormally high mantle temperature or thermal plumes.