Fluid-mobile elements (FMEs) such as B, Cs, As, Li and Tl can mobilize readily under low P-T conditions (0.2-0.5 GPa). This makes them effective geochemical tracers that can be used as a way of tracking fluid-rock exchanges at the shallow depths encountered in the earliest stages of subduction. The Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) subduction system is unique in that it preserves a record of the sequences produced from the onset of subduction through the development of arc magmatism. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 352 recovered >800m of boninite core material from the earliest IBM magmatic events. Select boninitic glasses from these IODP 352 cores, found mostly as selvages on the rinds of pillow lavas and as clasts within hyaloclastites, were examined via EPMA and laser ablation ICP-MS techniques. The boninite glasses analyzed were separated into two categories – low-silica boninite (LSB) and high-silica boninites (HSB), based on the bulk chemistry and mineralogy of the lithostratigraphic locations from which the glass samples occur in the drill core. LSB are the earlier erupted boninite series, which show both greater variation in extent of differentiation and reflect less depleted mantle sources than HSB. Boron concentrations in the Expedition 352 boninite glasses analyzed range from 0.08 to 12.91 ppm, arsenic contents vary from 0.15 to 3.26 ppm, and cesium varies from 0.01 to 0.91 ppm. Lithium concentrations in the boninites range from 1 to 18.35 ppm while Tl concentrations vary from 10 to 155 ppb. FME concentrations trend toward higher values in HSB than in LSB. Low-Si boninites appear to form via simple mixing of depleted mantle source and an FME enriched fluid endmember, which mobilizes B, As, Cs, (Tl) and Li very early in the subduction process. Coupled with inputs from upwelling mantle, this FME-rich fluid triggers fluid-fluxed boninite melting. The high-Si boninites reflect the addition of a subduction component with a higher Ba/La ratio than that of the depleted mantle; this higher ratio more closely resembles that of Mariana cherts from altered Pacific crust. Thus, the high-Si boninites are consistent with the fluid-fluxed melting of a highly depleted, harzburgitic mantle source and reflect inputs of two distinguishable slab-derived components, one that is sedimentary in nature and another that is FME-enriched. This model for melting that is more similar to the melting regime of modern arcs and reflects the transition from early extension-related melting into that of a “normal” subduction system.

Two suites of intermediate-felsic plutonic rocks were recovered by dredges RD63 and RD64 (R/V KK81-06-26) from the northern wall of the Mariana trench near Guam, which is located in the southern part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) island arc system. The locations of the dredges are significant as the area contains volcanic rocks (forearc basalts and boninites) that have been pivotal in explaining processes that occur when one lithospheric plate initially begins to subduct beneath another. The plutonic rocks have been classified based on petrologic and geochemical analyses, which provides insight to their origin and evolution in context of the surrounding Mariana trench. Based on whole rock geochemistry, these rocks (SiO2: 49-78 wt%) have island arc trace element signatures (Ba, Sr, Rb enrichment, Nb-Ta negative anomalies, U/Th enrichment), consistent with the adjacent IBM volcanics. Depletion of rare earth elements (REEs) relative to primitive mantle and excess Zr and Hf compared to the middle REEs indicate that the source of the plutonic rocks is similar to boninites and transitional boninites. Early IBM volcanic rocks define isotopic fields (Sr, Pb, Nd and Hf-isotopes) that represent different aspects of the subduction process (e.g., sediment influence, mantle provenance). The southern Mariana plutonic rocks overlap these fields, but show a clear distinction between RD63 and RD64. Modeling of the REEs, Zr and Hf shows that the plutonic suites formed via melting of boninite crust or by crystallization from a boninite-like magma rather than other sources that are found in the IBM system. The data presented support the hypothesis that the plutonic rocks from RD63 and RD64 are products of subduction initiation and are likely pieces of middle crust in the forearc exposed at the surface by faulting and serpentine mudvolcanoes. Their existence shows that intermediate-felsic crust may form very early in the history of an intra-oceanic island arc system. Plutonic rocks with similar formation histories may exist in obducted suprasubduction zone ophiolites and would be evidence that felsic-intermediate forearc plutonics are eventually accreted to the continents.