The role of melt inclusions in understanding crustal melting

Omar Bartoli
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Universit di Padova, Via Gradenigo 6, 35131 Padova, Italy
The recent recognition of melt inclusions (MI) in peritectic minerals of high-grade, partially melted
metasedimentary rocks has opened up new possibilities to constrain petrological and tectonic processes
during crustal melting. In slowly-cooled regional rocks MI are crystallized to a cryptocrystalline
assemblage of quartz, feldspars and one or two micas, collectively named nanogranite. In very
exceptional geological contexts such as anatectic enclaves hosted in lavas, melt can be quenched to
glass during eruption of the host volcanic rocks. Unlike inclusions in igneous rocks, formed by magma
cooling and crystallization, MI in migmatites and granulites are trapped during incongruent melting,
along the up-temperature path of anatexis. Because of that peculiar origin, they provide key microstructural and chemical information.
Microstructurally, when they appear trapped within potential peritectic minerals (garnet, cordierite,
spinel, ilmenite) and display textural features pointing to a primary origin, MI demonstrate the growth
of their host in the presence of melt. Therefore MI represent most reliable microstructural criteria for
the former presence of melt in a rock, particularly in cases where deformation and/or recrystallisation
have erased previous igneous microstructures. MI indicate not only that a rock was partially melted, but
they also constrain what mineral(s) coexisted with the melt. An unexpected outcome is that garnet can
trap the earliest formed, low-T melts, with muscovite still stable or soon after its disappearance.
As the chemical composition of anatectic MI is representative of the bulk melt in the system during
anatexis, these tiny objects (rarely exceeding 15 m) represent embryos of anatectic granites. With an
appropriate characterization and analytical strategy they can provide the missing information on the
primary composition of natural crustal melts before they undergo modication processes such as
cumulus, fractional crystallization, mixing or entrainment of exotic material. Information on primary
compositions includes the concentrations of volatile components, and hence the nature of the uid
regime during anatexis. While glassy inclusions can be analyzed directly, nanogranites need to be
rehomogenized and then quenched. Remelting is done in a piston cylinder, to prevent the decrepitation
of inclusions and loss of volatiles. Inclusions can then be analyzed for major and trace elements, and
also for H2O: most melts are leucogranitic and peraluminous, but important variations exist in the
normative Qtz-Ab-Or proportions (with some tonalitic compositions), as well as in H2O contents.
This presentation will summarize some key results from MI occurrences at El Hoyazo and Ronda
(Spain), the Kerala Kondalite Belt of India, the Ivrea Zone (Italy) and Kali Gandaki (Nepal).