Recycled oceanic crust observed in ‘ghost plagioclase’ within the source of Mauna Loa lavas

Abstract

The hypothesis that mantle plumes contain recycled oceanic crust¹ is now widely accepted. Some specific source components of the Hawaiian plume have been inferred to represent recycled oceanic basalts², pelagic sediments^3,4 or oceanic gabbros⁵. Bulk lava compositions, however, retain the specific trace-element fingerprint of the original crustal component in only a highly attenuated form. Here we report the discovery of exotic, strontium-enriched melt inclusions in Mauna Loa olivines. Their complete trace-element patterns strongly resemble those of layered gabbros found in ophiolites, which are characterized by cumulus plagioclase with very high strontium abundances⁶. The major-element compositions of these melts indicate that their composition cannot be the result of the assimilation of present-day oceanic crust through which the melts have travelled. Instead, the gabbro has been transformed into a (high-pressure) eclogite by subduction and recycling, and this eclogite has then been incorporated into the Hawaiian mantle plume. The trace-element signature of the original plagioclase is present only as a ‘ghost’ signature, which permits specific identification of the recycled rock type. The ‘ghost plagioclase’ trace-element signature demonstrates that the former gabbro can retain much of its original chemical identity through the convective cycle without completely mixing with other portions of the former oceanic crust.