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The origin and evolution of subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) are important issues of Earth’s chemical and physical evolution. Here, we report detailed textural and chemical analyses on a mantle xenolith suite from Befang (Oku Volcanic Group, Cameroon Volcanic Line), which represents a major tectono-magmatic structure of the African plate. The samples are sourced from spinel-facies mantle and are dominated by lherzolites. Their texture is cataclastic to porphyroclastic, and foliation defined by grain-size variation and alignment of spinel occurs in part of peridotites. Spinel is interstitial and has amoeboidal shape. Clinopyroxene REE patterns are similar to those of Depleted MORB Mantle (DMM) except LREEs, which vary from depleted to enriched. The A-type olivine fabric occurs in the subset of one harzburgite and 7 lherzolites studied by EBSD. Orthopyroxene shows deformation consistent with olivine. The fabric of LREE-enriched clinopyroxene is equivalent to those of orthopyroxene and olivine, whereas spinel and LREE-depleted clinopyroxene are oriented independently of host rock fabric. The textural, chemical and thermobarometric constraints indicate that the Befang mantle section was refertilised by MORB-like melt at pressures of 1.0–1.4 GPa and temperatures slightly above 1200–1275 °C. The olivine-orthopyroxene framework and LREE-enriched clinopyroxene preserve the protolith fabric. In contrast, the LREE-depleted clinopyroxene, showing discordant deformation relative to the olivine-orthopyroxene protolith framework, and amoeboidal spinel crystallized from the infiltrating melt. The major element and REEs composition of minerals forming the Befang peridotites indicate subsequent reequilibration at temperatures 930–1000 °C. This was followed by the formation of websterite veins in the lithospheric mantle, which can be linked to Cenozoic volcanism in the Cameroon Volcanic Line that also brought the xenoliths to the surface. This study therefore supports the origin of fertile SCLM via refertilization rather than by extraction of small melt fractions, and further emphasizes the involvement of depleted melts in this process.

Mantle xenoliths in the 20 Ma Wilcza Gora basanite (Lower Silesia, NE Bohemian Massif) are mostly harzburgites, some with amphibole which is exceptional in the region. Forsterite content in olivine defines two Groups of peridotites: Group A (Fo89.1–91.5) and Group B (Fo84.2–89.2). Hornblende-clinopyroxenite, websterite and one composite xenolith consisting of dunite, olivine-hornblendite and pyroxene-hornblende-peridotite contain olivine with Fo77.3–82.5 and are classified as Group C. Group A xenoliths contain Al-poor orthopyroxene and some contain LREE-enriched clinopyroxene with negative Ti, Zr–Hf and Nb–Ta anomalies. Spinel (Cr# 0.57–0.68) is scarce in Group A, and Cr-rich pargasite occurs in only two xenoliths. Group B xenoliths contain less magnesian orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene. The REE patterns of Group B clinopyroxene are convex downward, less enriched in LREE and have smaller negative Ti, Zr–Hf and Nb–Ta anomalies than those in Group A. The Cr# in Group B spinel is 0.26–0.56, while pargasite is Ti-rich and Cr-poor. Clinopyroxene from Group C is low magnesian, slightly enriched in LREE and has no negative Ti, Zr–Hf and Nb–Ta anomalies. Group C pargasite is rich in Ti and poor in Cr. Equilibration temperatures recorded in all groups vary within the range of 905–970 °C. Xenoliths from Wilcza Gora record a polyphase lithospheric mantle evolution, starting with melting which extracted ca. 30% melt from the protolith and left a harzburgite residuum depleted in Al, lacking clinopyroxene and containing rare Cr-rich spinel. This residuum was later overprinted by chromatographic metasomatism by carbonated hydrous silicate melt related to Cenozoic volcanism. The metasomatic agent was locally hydrous enough to enable amphibole to crystallize. The Group C pyroxenites formed directly from the metasomatic melt or during peridotite–melt reactions at high melt–rock ratio. The melt is inferred to have percolated through the wall-rock peridotite, decreasing its amount and changing composition (and that of the crystallizing clinopyroxene and amphibole) as it differentiated chromatographically from Groups B to A. Enrichment in carbonatite component occurred in the further parts of a chromatographic column. Group B peridotites closest to the source of the metasomatic agent were percolated by an iron-rich melt. The latter, aside from crystallizing clinopyroxene and amphibole, caused Fe-enrichment in the host harzburgite. Such a metasomatic history is typical for the lithospheric mantle located beneath the northern margin of the Bohemian Massif, but Wilcza Gora is the only locality, where activity of a hydrous metasomatic agent is recorded. Thus, the lithospheric mantle in this area was affected by mafic silicate metasomatic agents of variable compositions.

Mantle xenoliths in Oligocene-Miocene alka- line lavas in Lower Silesia (SW Poland) and adjacent part of Upper Lusatia (SE Germany) are samples of the subcon- tinental lithospheric mantle at the time of culmination of rifting in the Eger Rift (Bohemian Massif, Central Europe). The xenoliths come from the spinel mantle facies and show that two major lithologies occur in the area: A—highly magnesian (olivine Fo 90.5-92.0) harzburgites, and B— less magnesian (olivine Fo 84.0-90.0) harzburgites. The protolith of group A was clinopyroxene-free harzburgite being the residue after extensive melting. It was affected by chromatographic carbonatite/silicate melt metasomatism, with the carbonatite metasomatism only recorded in distal parts of the chromatographic systems. The B harzburgites were penetratively metasomatised by percolating alkaline silicate melts at the time of volcanism. That metasomatism was mostly anhydrous and typically cryptic; it lowered the Mg/(Mg + Fe) ratio of olivine and orthopyroxene in the peridotites subjected to melt percolation and led in places to dissolution of clinopyroxene. The mostly harzburgitic subcontinental mantle lithospheric domain beneath Lower Silesia and Upper Lusatia differs from the lherzolitic/

A small (280 x 140 m) outcrop of peridotite occurs on Popiel Hill (Sudetes, SW Poland) within the low-grade metabasic rocks of the Rudawy Janowickie Complex, which form the eastern and north-eastern cover of the Variscan Karkonosze granite. The peridotite is situated on the Intra-Sudetic Fault, one of the major Variscan dislocations in the region. The rock consists of strongly tectonised olivine (Fo 84-88 ) and orthopyroxene (Mg# 0.84–0.88) aggregates, overgrown by tremolite-magnesiohornblende, locally forming large crystals, embedded in serpentine. Spinel and magnetite are subordinate; ilmenite, Fe-sulfide, and apatite are accessories. The bulk-rock chemical composition suggests a lherzolitic composition and the occurrence of primary clinopyroxene, now completely replaced by tremolite and magnesiohornblende. Rare Earth Element patterns are flat, slightly enriched relatively to primitive mantle, as is typical of island arc tholeiites. Olivine, orthopyroxene, and spinel were the first to crystallize, and they represent relics of a primary igneous assemblage. They were followed by tremolite and serpentine, formed during uplift and related metamorphism. The last mineral to crystallize was magnesiohornblende, which originated due to contact metamorphism by the Karkonosze granite magma. The Popiel peridotite probably represents a small slice of lherzolitic cumulate, which originated in a tholeiitic magma chamber at the roots of a supra-subduction volcanic arc.

The ca. 30 Ma Steinberg basanite occurs at the NE termination of the Eger (Ohře) Rift in the NW Bohemian Massif, Central Europe, and belongs to the Cenozoic alkaline Central European Volcanic Province. The basanite hosts a suite of mantle xenoliths, most of which are harzburgites containing relatively magnesian olivine (Fo 90.5–91.6) and Al-poor (0.04–0.13 a pfu) orthopyroxene (mg# 0.90–0.92). Some of these harzburgites also contain volumetrically minor clinopyroxene (mg# 0.92–0.95, Al 0.03–0.13 a pfu) and have U-shaped LREE-enriched REE patterns. The Steinberg harzburgites are typical for the Lower Silesian - Upper Lusatian domain of the European subcontinental lithospheric mantle. They represent residual mantle that has undergone extensive partial melting and was subsequently affected by mantle metasomatism by mixed carbonatite-silicate melts. The Steinberg xenolith suite comprises also dunitic xenoliths affected by metasomatism by melt similar to the host basanite, which lowered the Fo content in olivine to 87.6 %. This metasomatism happened shortly before xenolith entrainment in the erupting lava. One of the xenoliths is a wehrlite (olivine Fo 73 %, clinopyroxene mg# 0.83–0.85, subordinate orthopyroxene mg# 0.76–0.77). Its clinopyroxene REE pattern is flat and slightly LREE-depleted. This wehrlite is considered to be a tholeiitic cumulate. One of the studied harzburgites contains clinopyroxene with similar trace element contents to those in wehrlite. This type of clinopyroxene records percolation of tholeiitic melt through harzburgite. The tholeiitic melt might be similar to Cenozoic continental tholeiites occurring in the Central European Volcanic Province (e.g., Vogelsberg, Germany).