Oceanic Intraplate Volcanism lity in the alkali content, both collectively and ind for ocean intraplate volcanism, Bocause alkalis are incompatible elements, ily affected by up to $0% this again a only shallow fractional crystalliza- "ues for distinct mantle sources or generat. nisms. The variation in Na/K among the suites rakes the former possibility much more likely and leads us that the mantle is more heterogeneous than we ously thought From the major element chemical composition, we conclude that OITs are distinet from MORBs and that cither a result of less extensive partial melting oof less depleted mantle, such as the depleted reservoir deeper than 660 km. OIAs are also distinct, ous. Suggesting complex melting processes, © chemically heterogeneous mantle source, or both. We sould continue to analyze the major element behavior of the ‘rious suites on variation diagrams, but 1 prefer that we on to the most interesting aspect of the OIB story: TABLE 4 _Alkali/Silica Ratios (Regression) for Selected Ocean Islands Alk/Silica. Na,O/SiO, —_K,0/SiO2 0.86 0.54 0.32 0.86 0.52 0.34 0.83 0.47 0.35 07 0a? 033 Noronha Gough 074 030 oa Sh 056 0.34 0.22 TistndaCunha 0.60.24 022 Aaores oa 024 021 Ascension 0.42 0.18 024 Conary lands 041 0.22 0.19 reife oat 020 021 Galapagos 0.25 0.12 0.13 aud 020 008 0.12 sree eesrec sera O-dOne eer OUB EEL aaEEE Hee FIGURE 3 Alkali versus silica diagram of Cox etal (1979), showing the differentiation trends for an ocean island tholeitic series (celand), a silica-undersaturated ocean island alkaline series (Tristan da Cunha) and a slightly oversaturated OIA series (Ascension Island). After Wilson (1989). Copyright, © by permission Kluwer Academic Publishers, what they can tell us about the nature of the mantle. For this ‘we must look at the trace element and isotope systems. 4 OIB TRACE ELEMENT GEOCHEMISTRY ‘The LIL trace elements (K, Rb, Cs, Ba, Pb”, and Sr) are in- ‘compatible (except for Sr and Ba in plagioclase). and are all enriched in OLB magmas with respect to MORBs. They can be used to evaluate the source composition, degree of partial melting (and residual phases), and subsequent fractional erystallization processes. although they may not always be able to discriminate well between them. As mentioned pre viously, the ployed to distinguish between source reservoirs, and the K/Ba ratio is considered by many to be a particularly good source indicator. For N-MORBs K/Ba is high (usually >100), whereas for E-MORB it is in the mid-30s, OITS range from 25 to 40, and OLAS in the upper 20s. Thus all appear to have istinctive sources. HFS clements (Th, U, Ce, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, and Ti) are also incompatible and are enriched in OIBs over MORBs. Ratios of these elements have also been used to distinguish OTB mantle sources. The Zr/Nb ratio, for ex- ample, is generally high for N-MORB (>30) and low for O1B (<10). MORBs near ocean island plumes commonly show lower Z1/Nb and Y/Nb values that fit a mixing line between N-MORB and the adjacent plume O1B, implying that the two components are variably combined during ascent (LeRoex et al.. 1983, 1985; Humphris et al, 198: Compatible transition metals, such as Ni and Cr, are useful indicators of fractional crystallization of olivine and spinel, respectively. OLAS tend 0 be depleted in both relative to OITs and MORBs, which, along with the higher Mga, sug- gests they have experienced fractionation of these phases prior to eruption, A number of REE curves for OIBs are illustrated in Figure 4. The bounding curves for N-MORB and HORB are included for reference. Note that ocean land tholeiites (represented by the Kilauea and Mauna Loa samples) overlap with MORB and are not unlike E-MORB. The alkaline basalts have steeper slopes 265 @ scanned with OKEN Scanner