Fractionation of Nb/Ta during subduction of carbonate-rich sediments

We report high precision high field strength element (HFSE) concentrations of Italian Plio-Quaternary mafic magmas. Silica-undersaturated rocks of the Roman magmatic province show high Nb/Ta. Instead, earlier silica-oversaturated rocks of the Tuscan magmatic province have unfractionated Nb/Ta. We show evidence that the high Nb/Ta of Roman magmas reflects subduction-derived, carbonate-rich melts. Similar melts may also account for high Nb/Ta in other silica-undersaturated magmas from the circum-Mediterranean (e.g., Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey) and the Sunda arc, previously interpreted to reflect residual rutile. We propose a genetic link between high Nb/Ta, silica-undersaturated magmas and recycling of carbonate-rich lithologies via subduction. As such, Nb/Ta can be used to trace the recycling of subducting carbonates.