Garnet Signatures in Geophysical and Geochemical Observations: Insights into the Thermo-Petrological Structure of Oceanic Upper Mantle

We have developed new physically comprehensive thermal plate models of the oceanic lithosphere which incorporate temperature- and pressure-dependent heat transport properties and thermal expansivity, melting beneath ridges, hydrothermal circulation near ridge axes, and insulating oceanic crust. These models provide good fits to global databases of seafloor topography and heat flow, and seismic evidence of thermal structure near ridge axes. We couple these thermal plate models with thermodynamic models to predict the petrology of oceanic lithosphere. Geoid height predictions from our models suggest that there is a strong anomaly in geoid slope (over age) above ~25 Ma lithosphere due to the topography of garnet-field mantle. A similar anomaly is also present in geoid data over fracture zones. In addition, we show that a new assessment of a large database of ocean island basalt Sm/Yb systematics indicates that there is an unmistakable step-like increase in Sm/Yb values around 15-20 Ma, indicating the presence of garnet. To explain this feature, we have attempted to couple our thermo-petrological models of oceanic upper mantle with an open system, non-modal, dynamic melting model with diffusion kinetics to investigate trace element partitioning in an ascending mantle column.