Abstract
The mantle above a subducting slab is the site of complex interactions between deformation, partial melting, fluid migration and magma transport. To constrain these interactions and their effects on olivine deformation, we analyze microstructures, crystal preferred orientations, and water contents of peridotite xenoliths entrained by andesites of the Avacha volcano, southern Kamchatka arc. These xenoliths are refractory spinel harzburgites that have coarse-grained microstructures with widely spaced subgrain boundaries and sinuous grain boundaries in olivine, consistent with deformation by dislocation creep under low deviatoric stress (< 13 MPa) and with a significant contribution from diffusional processes. Analysis of crystal preferred orientations (CPO) indicates dominant activation of high-temperature, low-stress {0kl}[100] slip systems in olivine and of(100)[001] in orthopyroxene. In most samples, coarse opx crystals, elongated parallel to the lineation, enclose small olivine grains in crystallographic continuity with neighbouring crystals, indicating crystallization of orthopyroxene at the expense of olivine as a result of reactive percolation of Si-rich fluids coeval with the high-temperature deformation. Secondary crystallization of interstitial orthopyroxene led locally to development of opx-rich lenses parallel to the foliation, characterized by a decrease in olivine grain size and dispersion of the olivine CPO without changing the dominant slip systems. Half of the samples also show acicular orthopyroxene aggregates with which is associated a fine-grained matrix composed of rounded strain-free olivine, orthopyroxene, spinel, and rare amphibole crystals. This matrix occurs pervasively along grain boundaries or forms millimeter-scale irregular lenses and anastomosing veinlets that crosscut the coarse crystals and their ductile deformation structures. Both acicular orthopyroxene and the fine-grained matrix are interpreted as resulting from reactive transport of H2O-rich fluids under static conditions, probably in the lithospheric mantle. Infrared analyses show that olivine contains 1-8 center dot 6 ppm by weight of water. These low water contents are similar to those observed in spinel peridotites from other subduction zones and probably record both the low solubility of water in olivine at low pressure and dehydration during exhumation of the xenoliths. Water contents in orthopyroxene are highly variable (25-506 ppm H2O), probably recording spatially heterogeneous interaction with fluids or melts and compositional disequilibrium in the studied samples. Change in the dominant percolation mechanism from porous flow to fracturing suggests cooling, consistent with the low temperatures estimated from pyroxene thermometry (< 800-900 degrees C). The Avacha xenoliths therefore record pervasive deformation of a region of the mantle under asthenospheric conditions, followed by its accretion to the base of the lithosphere, probably as a result of cooling of the mantle wedge. Percolation of Si-rich fluids or hydrous melts is recorded at all stages; this probably enhanced diffusion and lowered deviatoric stresses during ductile deformation, but did not change the dominant slip direction in olivine from [100] to [001].