Origin and magma pathways for intraplate volcanism: a new damage mechanics model

We address the question of melting at the base of the lithosphere and the opening of pathways capable of transferring melt to the surface in an intraplate setting of an extending continental lithosphere. We study the initial stage of melting and the onset of the melting instability. The aim of this study thus is to understand: (i) the ubiquitous appearance of alkali-basaltic volcanic provinces that appear without identifiable heat source in intraplate settings; (ii) the apparent relation between melting and localization of deformation under such extremely low intraplate strain rates; (iii) the challenge of generating efficient pathways for the propagation of melt to the surface; (iv) the generation of melt at the base of a lithosphere with low regional heat flow in a thermodynamically consistent model; (iv) as a minor aspect, we also investigate the effect of a pre-existing structure at the surface of the lithosphere. We use a novel method for calculating the effect of melt on lithosphere deformation, which includes damage mechanics and feedback effects between melt generation and rock deformation. We show that it is possible to nucleate melt damage shear bands at the bottom of initially cold lithosphere in slow extensional setting. We conducted numerical models for common continental lithosphere with 50mW/m2 heat flow and a slow asymmetric extension velocity of 1 mm/y, and allowed three different damage mechanisms: (1) classical brittle damage with a Drucker-Prager type rheology; (2) creep damage with a crustal fluid assisted diffusional/dislocation mechanism; and (3) melt damage with a melt-supported diffusional/ dislocation mechanism. The melt conditions were calculated with a Gibbs energy minimization method (Melts; http://melts.ofm-research.org/), and the energy equation solved self-consistently for latent heat and shear heating effects. Our results show that within a short timeframe (~2 Ma), melt damage can propagate from the bottom of the lithosphere upwards and efficiently create channels or a singular channel to the surface which can be focused further by a pre-existing graben. Our model results may be applicable to the situation in the Azraq-Sirhan rift system that crosses the Arabian plate parallel to the Red Sea, and is spatially related to a large volcanic province sub-parallel to the rift. The offset and timing relationship of the generic model can explain the spatial-temporal observations in this system. This is the first application of a new melt damage formulation, which can explain the unexpected short timescale, volume and magma extraction in an intraplate setting with a low regional heat flux and low background strain rate.