Modelling Partial Melting in Sinking Greenstone Belts With Implications for Archaean Continental Crust Formation

Abstract

Tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) gneisses are the dominant component of Archaean continental crust, with their parent magmas generally thought to have formed due to the partial melting of hydrated basalts; however, this process typically produces melts with a notably lower Mg^# than most natural TTGs. By contrast, ultramafic volcanic rocks commonly preserved in Archaean greenstone belts may represent an alternative source of TTG magma that has been largely overlooked. Here, we use petrological modelling to investigate anatexis of komatiites and komatiitic basalts from the Warrawoona Group of the Pilbara craton. In all cases, komatiite is refractory and generates no melt within the pressure-temperature range considered. Komatiitic basalts, however, could produce 20–25 vol. % of MgO-rich melts during greenstone belt sinking and hot subduction. Anatexis of komatiitic basalts generates melt fractions too depleted in large ion lithophile elements to represent natural TTGs; however, hybridization of melts produced by partial melting of tholeiitic basalts and komatiitic basalts during crustal overturn would generate magma that resembles natural TTGs. All calculated melts are felsic in composition, and TTGs with high Mg^# could have been generated entirely within the crust, with no requirement for the assimilation of mantle materials. By contrast, Archaean sanukitoids require some assimilation of mantle materials with crustal melts, indicating that the oldest sanukitoids preserved in each Archaean craton may record temporary and localized subduction on the early earth. The ubiquitous occurrence of sanukitoids worldwide by c. 2.7 Ga may provide a minimum age for the onset of global plate tectonics.