Aleutian island arc magma production rates and primary controlling factors

Island arc magmatism is considered a major mechanism of continental crustal growth; hence, the variation in island arc magma production rates and its influencing factors are of great importance. The along-arc strike variation in the island arc magma production rate is important for elucidating whether the subduction zone temperature is a controlling factor on arc magmatism. No back-arc spreading or ridge subduction is occurring in the intraoceanic subduction region of the Aleutian subduction zone, and the along-arc temperatures vary due to differences in the subducting plate age, convergence rate, and slab dip. Therefore, this is an ideal region to study the correlation between magma production rates and subduction zone temperatures. However, previous studies estimated the magma production rates at only a few locations due to the insufficient coverage of seismic data. Here, we employ the gravity inversion method based on density modelling and seismic data constraints to calculate the present-day arc crustal thickness and then obtain the magmatic thickness by removing the pre-existing crustal thickness from the present-day arc crustal thickness. Finally, the magma production rates along the main intraoceanic subduction region of the Aleutian Arc are mapped by estimating the island arc magmatic thickness and the most recent subduction inception dating result. In addition, the subduction zone temperatures and mantle melt amounts along five profiles across the Aleutian Arc are calculated. The magma production rate variation is highly correlated with the mantle melt amount. The slab temperature controls the extent of the slab dehydration, which is essential for mantle wedge melting, and the mantle wedge temperature controls the size of the hydrated mantle melting region and the melting fraction therein. Therefore, as the subduction zone temperature controls the mantle melt amount, we suggest that the subduction zone temperature is the first-order controlling factor on the magma production rate.