Strontium xenoliths

Clinopyroxene shows a range of REE patterns from extremely enriched to very depleted TREE signatures (Figure 22). Noncratonic peridotites are subdivided on the basis of clinopyroxene REE patterns into LREE-depleted (type lA) and LREE-enriched (type IB Menzies, 1983 Figure 17). LREE-enriched type IB pyroxenes are the norm in most suites. LREE-depleted varieties are relatively scarce. Very few clinopyroxenes show simple LREE-depleted REE patterns that can be interpreted solely in terms of melt depletion, i.e., LREE depletion, fiat, unfractionated MREE-HREE patterns (e.g., UM-6 or 2905 Eigure 22). For peridotites that do have LREE-depleted clinopyroxenes, a correlation of HREE with other incompatible trace elements (e.g., yttrium, strontium, zirconium) in xenoliths suites worldwide requires fractional melting to be the principal means of depletion in the mantle (Norman, 2001). 

In an extensive review of the geochemistry of volatile-bearing minerals in mantle xenoliths, Ionov et al (1997) have pointed out that although minerals such as mica, amphibole, and apatite are often referred to as hydrous, in many cases they have very low H2O contents (Boettcher and O Neill, 1980). In such cases, these minerals may have significant amounts of fluorine, chlorine and CO2. Mica, amphibole, and apatite, together with the oxide phases, are important hosts for titanium, potassium, rubidium, strontium, barium, and niobium (Table 9). 

One of the first studies to show this was performed on Kilboume Hole spinel Uierzolites (Jagoutz et al, 1980). Equihbrated neodymium isotopes in orthopyroxene and diopside defined essentially zero age isochrons, consistent with the very recent eruption age of the host volcanic rocks, while strontium isotopes were un-equilibrated. Stolz and Davies (1988) found varying degrees of equihbration between amphibole, clinopyroxene and apatite in peridotite xenoliths from S.E. Australia. Several samples contained coexisting amphibole and clinopyroxene and had almost reached isotopic equilibrium for strontium but displayed disequilibrium relations for lead and neodymium isotopes. This was taken to indicate more rapid diffusion of strontium than lead and neodymium. Some peridotite and eclogite... 

Four cratonic, ultradeep xenoliths from S. Africa and Sierra Leone have been analyzed for their strontium and neodymium isotopic compositions (Macdougall and Haggerty, 1999). The neodymium isotopic compositions of minerals from these xenoliths suggest that they were emplaced into the African lithosphere at times ranging from approximately the time of kimberlite emption to hundreds of millions of years earlier. The samples show a complex history of melt... 

Few systematic Sr-Nd isotope studies have been performed on ocean island xenolith suites. Ducea et al. (2002) analyzed clinopyroxenes from plagioclase-spinel and spinel peridotites from Pali, (Oahu, Hawaii) and found relatively depleted strontium and neodymium isotope systematics that they interpret as representing their evolution as residues from the extraction of Pacific Ocean crust. Consistent with this is a 61 20Ma errorchron defined by the pyroxene separates that is within error of the 80-85 Ma age of Pacific lithosphere beneath Hawaii. 

Compared with neodymium and strontium, there are relatively few studies of the lead isotopic compositions of mantle xenoliths and the systematics are probably biased towards samples that show some degree of patent metasomatism in the form of introduction of amphibole and/or mica. Much of the data come from noncratonic metasomatized peridotites (e.g., Stolz and Davies, 1988) and cratonic MARID xenoliths. Some type I xenoliths that do not have patent metasomatism, from cratonic and noncratonic settings (Kramers, 1977 Galer and O Nions, 1989 Walker et al., 1989 Lee et al., 1996) together with various... 

Kramers J. D. (1977) Lead and strontium isotopes in Cretaceous kimberlites and mantle-derived xenoliths from Southern Africa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 34, 419-431. 

Porcelli D., O Nions R. K., and O Reilly S. Y. (1986a) Helium and strontium isotopes in ultramaflc xenoliths. Chem. Geol. 54, 237-249. 

Kramers, J. D. 1979. Lead, uranium, strontium, potassium and rubidium in inclusion-bearing diamonds and mantle derived xenoliths from southern Africa. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 42, 58-70. 

Ionov et ai, 1997). Both strontium and barium are higher in amphibole from xenoliths than those from massif peridotites (e.g., Vannucci et al, 1995). Numerous ion-probe and laser/solution ICP-MS smdies have found wide variation in amphibole REE patterns depending on textural context and tectonic setting (Witt- Eickschen and Harte, 1994 Vannucci et al., 1995 Ionov and Hofmann, 1995 Johnson et al., 1996 Chazot etal., 1996 Vasellieta/., 1995 Ionov eta/., 1997 Pearson and Nowell, 2002 Gregoire et al., 2002). 

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