Experimental Determination of Near Solidus Melts to Spinel and Garnet Peridotite

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9902684HessThe purpose of this research proposal is to determine by experiment the compositions of melts produced by extremely small degrees of melting of the Earth's upper mantle. The properties, compositions and the ultimate fate of such melts are important keys for our understanding of melt generation, melt transport and the creation of mantle heterogeneity as observed in mantle samples brought to the earth's surface by oceanic basalts on the ocean floor and oceanic islands. Our failure to understand how the detailed geochemical properties of such basalts arise may largely be the result of the ubiquity and unusual chemical compositions of melts produced at the initiation of melting in the mantle. These experiments will constrain the complex melt processes that operate to produce the vast variety of basalts on Earth, and indeed, even on other planets.