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Cycling of sulfur in subduction zones: The geochemistry of sulfur in the Mariana Island Arc and back-arc trough

J.C. Alt·Wayne C. Shanks·M.C. Jackson
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Abstract

The sulfur contents and sulfur isotopic compositions of 24 glassy submarine volcanics from the Mariana Island Arc and back-arc Mariana Trough were determined in order to investigate the hypothesis that subducted seawater sulfur (δ 34 S= 21‰) is recycled through arc volcanism. Our results for sulfur are similar to those for subaerial arc volcanics: Mariana Arc glasses are enriched in 34 S (δ 34 S=up to10.3‰,mean= 3.8‰) and depleted in S (20–290 ppm, mean = 100 ppm) relative to MORB (850 ppm S,δ 34 S= 0.1 ± 0.5‰). The back-arc trough basalts contain 200–930 ppm S and haveδ 34 S values of1.1 ± 0.5‰, which overlap those for the arc and MORB. The low sulfur contents of the arc and some of the trough glasses are attributed to (1) early loss of small amounts of sulfur through separation of immiscible sulfide and (2) later vapor-melt equilibrium control of sulfur contents and loss of sulfur in a vapor phase from sulfide-undersaturated melts near the minimum in sulfur solubility atƒO 2 ≈NNO (nickel-nickel oxide). Although these processes removed sulfur from the melts their effects on the sulfur isotopic compositions of the melts were minimal. Positive trends ofδ 34 S with 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, LILE and LREE contents of the arc volcanics are consistent with a metasomatic seawater sulfur component in the depleted sub-arc mantle source. The lack of a 34 S-rich slab signature in the trough lavas may be attributed to equilibration of metasomatic fluid with mantle material along the longer pathway from the slab to the source of the trough volcanics. Sulfur is likely to have been transported into the mantle wedge by metasomatic fluid derived from subducted sediments and pore fluids.

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J.C. Alt, Wayne C. Shanks, M.C. Jackson. 1993. Cycling of sulfur in subduction zones: The geochemistry of sulfur in the Mariana Island Arc and back-arc trough. https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821x(93)90057-g

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