National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 47(118), 2021
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Significance We report the discovery of anomalously high 3 He/ 4 He in “cold” geothermal fluids of central Panama, far from any active volcanoes. Combined with independent constraints from lava geochemistry, mantle source geochemical anomalies in Central America require a Galápagos plume contribution that is not derived from hotspot track recycling. Instead, these signals likely originate from large-scale transport of Galápagos plume material at sublithospheric depths. Mantle flow modeling and geophysical observations further indicate these geochemical anomalies could result from a Galápagos plume-influenced asthenospheric “mantle wind” that is actively “blowing” through a slab window beneath central Panama. The lateral transport of plume material represents a potentially widespread yet underappreciated mechanism that scatters enriched geochemical signatures in mantle domains far from plumes.