Ponded melt at the boundary between the lithosphere and asthenosphere

Sakamaki, Tatsuya*; Suzuki, Akio*; Otani, Eiji*; Terasaki, Hidenori*; Urakawa, Satoru*; Katayama, Yoshinori; Funakoshi, Kenichi*; Wang, Y.*; Hernlund, J. W.*; Ballmer, M. D.*

Nature Geoscience, 6(12), p.1041 - 1044, 2013/12

https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1982

The bounday between Earth's rigid lighosphere and the underlying, ductile ashenosphere is marked by a distinct siseismic discontinuity. We measure the density, viscosity and structure of basaltic magmas using high-pressure and high-temperature experiments and in situ X-ray analysis under pressure of up to 5.5 GPa. We find that the magmas rapidly become denser with increasing presure and show a viscosity minimum near 4 GPa. Magma mobility determined by the density and viscosity data exhibits a peak at pressures corresponding to depths of 120-150 km, within the asthenosphere. The diminishing mobility of magma in Earth's asthenosphere as the mlets ascend could lead to excessive melt accumulation at depths of 80-100 km, at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. It is concluded that the observed seismic discontinuity at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary records this accumulation of melt.