Mantle heterogeneity beneath the South China Sea: Chemical and isotopic evidence for contamination of ambient asthenospheric mantle

Large quantities of continental lithosphere are known to enter the mantle during continental rifting, but their possible contribution in the generation of melts under a nascent ocean remains enigmatic. Here we report new in situ chemical and SrPb isotopic data for volcanic glass and feldspar in volcanic breccia in the South China Sea (SCS) formed after cessation of SCS spreading. Similar to volcanic breccia (whole rocks), the volcanic glasses...