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The lithospheric mantle beneath West Antarctica has been characterized using petrology, whole-rock and mineral major element geochemistry, whole-rock trace element chemistry and Mössbauer spectroscopy data obtained on a suite of peridotite (lherzolite and harzburgite) and pyroxenite xenoliths from the Mount Morning eruptive centre, Southern Victoria Land. The timing of pyroxenite formation in Victoria Land overlaps with subduction of the Palaeo-Pacific plate beneath the Gondwana margin and pyroxenite is likely to have formed when fluids derived from, or modified by, melting of the subducting, eclogitic, oceanic crustal plate percolated through peridotite of the lithospheric mantle. Subsequent melting of lithospheric pyroxenite veins similar to those represented in the Mount Morning xenolith suite has contributed to the enriched trace element (and isotope) signatures seen in Cenozoic volcanic rocks from Mount Morning, elsewhere in Victoria Land and Zealandia. In general, the harzburgite xenoliths reflect between 20 and 30% melt depletion. Their depleted element budgets are consistent with Archaean cratonization ages and they have mantle-normalized trace element patterns comparable with typical subcontinental lithospheric mantle. The spinel lherzolite mineral data suggest a similar amount of depletion to that recorded in the harzburgites (20–30%), whereas plagioclase lherzolite mineral data suggest <15% melt depletion. The lherzolite (spinel and plagioclase) xenolith whole-rocks have compositions indicating <20% melt depletion, consistent with Proterozoic to Phanerozoic cratonization ages, and have mantle-normalized trace element patterns comparable with typical depleted mid-ocean ridge mantle. All peridotite xenoliths have undergone a number of melt–rock reaction events. Melting took place mainly in the spinel peridotite stability field, but one plagioclase peridotite group containing high-sodium clinopyroxenes is best modelled by melting in the garnet field. Median oxygen fugacity estimates based on Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements of spinel and pyroxene for spinel-facies conditions in the rifted Antarctic lithosphere are –0·6 Δlog fO2 at Mount Morning and –1·0 ± 0·1 (1σ) Δlog fO2 for all of Victoria Land, relative to the fayalite–magnetite–quartz buffer. These values are in good agreement with a calculated global median value of –0·9 ± 0·1 (1σ) Δlog fO2 for mantle spinel-facies rocks from continental rift systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mohelno peridotite is a medium-sized ultramafic body (2 km × 4 km in size) enclosed in the Gföhl granulites in the eastern part of the Bohemian Massif. It consists mainly of coarse spinel peridotite (harzburgite and dunite); garnet peridotite occurs only in the sheared and deformed margins of the body. To decipher the origin and history of this mantle-derived peridotite, we determined the mineral chemistry by electron microprobe analysis and olivine fabric patterns by the electron backscattered diffraction method for each rock type. We found two distinct types of olivine fabric (crystal-preferred orientation; CPO) in the peridotite, which can be correlated with the mineralogy and thermal history of each. The olivine CPO in coarse-grained spinel peridotite shows a strong concentration of [100] slightly oblique to the lineation and [010] and [001] girdles normal to the lineation (which is the so-called {0kl}[100] pattern typical of medium-temperature deformation). Olivine in coarse-grained garnet peridotite, on the other hand, shows a strong concentration of [010] normal to the foliation and a concentration of [100] parallel to the lineation (which is the so-called (010)[100] pattern typical of high-temperature deformation). These fabric patterns become diffuse as the grain size is reduced for each mineralogical type. We interpret the development of these contrasting fabric patterns and mineralogical types based on the pressure–temperature history of each rock type determined by applying published geothermometers and geobarometers to the constituent minerals. Starting from a high-temperature (>1200°C) spinel peridotite, during exhumation and cooling in contact with surrounding granulites, the marginal part of the body was transformed to garnet peridotite, whereas the interior remained in the spinel-peridotite facies because cooling was slower inside the body. Because of the slow cooling and continuous deformation in the interior of the body, the original high-temperature fabric pattern in the spinel peridotite was converted to a lower-temperature type. The high-temperature fabric was preserved only at the margin of the body where cooling was more rapid. Reduction of grain size that occurred during later, low-temperature, deformation partly obliterated the high-temperature fabric patterns for both garnet and spinel peridotites. The initial rapid cooling at high temperatures associated with deformation probably occurred after the mantle peridotite was emplaced within the crustal granulites, which implies that the spinel- to garnet-peridotite transformation took place in the continental crust. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]