Modern arc-like water content in the source of 3.1-billion-year-old volcanic rocks

Abstract

Abstract Whether Archean arc-like volcanism reflects subduction remains debated. We present high-resolution geochemical data from a well-preserved 3.13-3.10 Ga arc-like volcanic succession in Australia’s Pilbara Craton, a rare Archean analog of modern arc volcanism retaining fluid-mobile element concentrations consistent with primary magmatic values. The sequence records three primitive lava series typical of modern arcs: tholeiitic, calc-alkaline, and the oldest stratigraphically extensive genuine boninites. Geochemical modelling shows this melt diversity requires at least two mantle sources with distinct depletion histories. The mantle H 2 O required for fluid-assisted melting to produce these lavas substantially exceeds primitive mantle, approaching the H 2 O-saturated solidus of modern mantle wedges. We infer hydrous melting was triggered by dripduction, the short-lived inclined foundering of hydrated lithosphere without laterally continuous plate boundaries, in an off-plateau setting. Dripduction locally recycled surface water and generated arc-like magmas without self-sustained plate tectonics, possibly promoting mantle-ocean-atmosphere volatile exchange during the Archean.