Magmatic arc compositions governed by climate change: A biogeodynamic perspective from the Eastern Equatorial Pacific

Magmatic arcs modulate global climate over geological timescales through outgassing and rock weathering, but recognizing the fingerprints of climate change in arc magmas remains challenging. Based on a detailed reconstruction of oceanographic, atmospheric, and climatic processes since the middle Miocene, as well as an extensive geochemical database of Miocene and active arc-front magmas from the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Central American Volcanic Arc, and the North Andean Colombian Arc we developed a conceptual framework by which biogeochemical proxies in oceanic sediments can be tracked down to the composition of arc magmas. Using this framework, we show that the well-documented increases in biologically mediated authigenic Ba and U contents of seafloor sediments from the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) at the onset of the so-called “carbonate crash” (12–9 Ma) were triggered by an escalation in biological productivity and an augmented efficiency of respiratory carbon storage. We suggest that the temporal modification of the oceanic carbon cycle was regulated by the synchronous formation of three wind-powered seasonal upwellings systems —Tehuantepec, Papagayo, and Panama— that developed in the context of steepening meridional temperature gradients, intensified atmospheric circulation and global climate cooling since the Middle Miocene. Sediments deposited in the context of these newly established upwelling systems became anomalously enriched in authigenic U and Ba not only in comparison to older sediments, but also with respect to geographically adjacent areas of the EEP where vigorous upwellings are absent. These peculiar environmental conditions thus produce a heterogeneous ocean floor that upon subduction and eventual interaction with the mantle wedge creates arc volcanoes with compositional fluctuations that mimic those of the ocean sediments. These findings indicate that the oceanographic and biogeochemical effects of climate change can be engraved on the continental crust and mantle.