Lithospheric mantle isotopic studies

The first modern isotopic studies of continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) revealed that it must have been isolated from the convecting mantle for bUlion-year timescales (Kramers, 1977 Menzies and Murthy, 1980a Richardson et al, 1984). 

Irvine G. J. (2002) Time constraints on the formation of lithospheric mantle beneath cratons a Re—Os isotope and Platinum Group Element study of peridotite xenoliths from Northern Canada and Lesotho, PhD Thesis, University of Durham. 

Irvine G. J., Carlson R. W., Kopylova M. G., Pearson D. G., Shirey S. B., and Kjarsgaard B. A. (1999) Age of the lithospheric mantle beneath and around the Slave craton a rhenium-osmium isotopic study of peridotite xenoliths from the Jericho and Somerset Island kimberlites. In Abst. Ninth Annual V. M. Goldschmidt Conference LPI contribution no. 971. Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, pp. 134-135. 

Pearson D. G., Boyd F. R., Haggerty S. E., Pasteris J. D., Field S. W., Nixon P. H., and Pokhilenko N. P. (1994) The characterisation and origin of graphite in cratonic lithospheric mantle a petrological carbon isotope and Raman spectroscopic study. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 115, 449-466. 

Carlson R. W. and Irving A. J. (1994) Depletion and enrichment history of subcontinental lithospheric mantle— an Os, Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic study of ultramafic xenoliths from the northwestern Wyoming craton. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 126, 457-472. 

Irvine, G. J., Pearson, D. G. Carlson, R. W. 2001. Evolution of the Kaapvaal lithospheric mantle a Re-Os isotope study of peridotite xenoliths from Lesotho kimberlites, Geophysical Research Letters, 28(13), 2505-2508. 

Some of the first isotopic studies of lithospheric mantle recognized its antiquity (Holmes Pan-eth 1936 Kramers 1979 Menzies Murthy... 

Recent U-Pb studies of lower-crustal xeno-liths, from kimberlites where Re-Os isotope studies have been undertaken on mantle peridotites, and on lower-crustal samples from the Vredefort impact structure, further illuminate the timing of lithosphere stabilization and support the notion of widespread lithospheric mantle stabilization in Neoarchaean time. These studies reveal major episodes of Meso- to Neoarchaean thermal activity in the lower crust (Schmitz Bowring 2000 Moser et al. 2002). Some of the lower-crustal xenoliths from the craton margins... 

To date, Re-Os isotope studies of peridotite xenolith suites, taken to be representative of the lithospheric mantle beneath continents, reveal that although some lithospheric mantle began to form beneath continents in Palaeo- to Mesoarch-aean time, major crustal differentiation events continued until Neoarchaean time when, at least in southern Africa, significant volumes of lithospheric mantle formed and stabilized the newly accreted continent. On the Kaapvaal Craton, major magmatic events such as that which formed the Bushveld intrusion, substantially modified or introduced new material into the lithospheric mantle (Carlson et al. 1999) and the lower crust (Schmitz Bowring 2000), but the craton retained its integrity for another 2 Ga. 

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