The water and fluid-mobile element cycles during serpentinite subduction. A review

The key role of serpentinites in the global cycles of volatiles, halogens and fluid-mobile elements in oceans and in subduction zones is now ascertained by many studies quantifying their element budgets and the composition of fluids they release during subduction. Geochemical tracers (e.g. B, As, Sb; stable B and radiogenic Sr and Pb isotopes) have also been employed to trace the provenance of serpentinites (slab or forearc mantle?) accreted to the plate interface of fossil subduction zones. In turn, this helps defining the tectonic processes, seismicity and mass transfer attending rock burial and exhumation within subduction zones. The results suggest that the sole use of geochemical data is insufficient to track the origin of subduction-zone serpentinites and the timing of serpentinization, whether oceanic or subduction-related. Integrated multidisciplinary studies of ophiolitic serpentinites show that pristine, oceanic, geochemical imprints (e.g. high 11B, marine Sr isotopes, low As + Sb) become reset towards more radiogenic Sr, lower 11B, and higher As + Sb via metasomatic exchange with crust-derived fluids during subduction accretion to the plate interface.The dehydration fluids released by serpentinite dehydration at various subduction stages and still preserved in these rocks as inclusions, carry significant amounts of halogens and fluid-mobile elements. The key compositional similarities of antigorite-breakdown fluids from different localities (Betic Cordillera, Spain; Central Alps, Switzerland) indicate that rocks record comparable subduction processes. We individuate the fluid-mediated exchange with sedimentary and/or crustal reservoirs during subduction as the key mechanism for geochemical hybridization of serpentinite. The antigorite dehydration fluids produced by hybrid serpentinites have high Cs, Rb, Ba, B, Pb, As, Sb and Li overlapping those of the arc lavas and representing the mixed serpentinite-sediment (crustal) component released to arcs. This helps discriminating the mass transfer processes responsible for supra-subduction mantle metasomatism and arc magmatism. The studied plate-interface hybrid serpentinites are also proxies of forearc mantle metasomatized by slab fluids. Based on the above observations, we propose that the mass transfer from slabs to plate interface and/or forearc mantle and the subsequent down-drag of this altered mantle to subarc depths potentially is a major process operating in subduction zones.The nominally anhydrous olivine, orhopyroxene, clinopyroxene and garnet produced by serpentinite dehydration host appreciable amounts of halogens and fluid-mobile elements that can be recycled in the deep mantle beyond arcs. Involvement of de-serpentinized residues in lower mantle metasomatism begins to be increasingly recognized by studies of ocean island basalts (OIB) and of B-bearing blue diamonds and by the isotopic serpentinite compositions presented here