Search

Garnet-bearing and garnet-free pyroxenite xenoliths from Quaternary basanites of Marsabit, northern Kenya, were analysed for microstructures and mineral compositions (major and trace elements) to constrain the thermal and compositional evolution of the lithospheric mantle in this region. Garnet-bearing rocks are amphibole-bearing websterite with ~5–10 vol% orthopyroxene. Clinopyroxene is LREE-depleted and garnet has high HREE contents, in agreement with an origin as cumulates from basaltic mantle melts. Primary orthopyroxene inclusions in garnet suggest that the parental melts were orthopyroxene-saturated. Rock fabrics vary from weakly to strongly deformed. Thermobarometry indicates extensive decompression and cooling (~970–1,100°C at ~2.3–2.6 GPa to ~700–800°C at ~0.5–1.0 GPa) during deformation, best interpreted as pyroxenite intrusion into thick Paleozoic continental lithosphere subsequently followed by continental rifting (i.e., formation of the Mesozoic Anza Graben). During continental rifting, garnet websterites were decompressed (garnet-to-spinel transition) and experienced the same P–T evolution as their host peridotites. Strongly deformed samples show compositional overlaps with cpx-rich, initially garnet-bearing lherzolite, best explained by partial re-equilibration of peridotite and pyroxenite during deformation and mechanical mingling. In contrast, garnet-free pyroxenites include undeformed, cumulate-like samples, indicating that they are younger than the garnet websterites. Major and trace element compositions of clinopyroxene and calculated equilibrium melts suggest crystallisation from alkaline basaltic melt similar to the host basanite, which suggests formation in the context of alkaline magmatism during the development of the Kenya rift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xenoliths hosted by Quaternary basanites and alkali basalts from Marsabit (northern Kenya) represent fragments of Proterozoic lithospheric mantle thinned and chemically modified during rifting in the Mesozoic (Anza Graben) and in the Tertiary–Quaternary (Kenya rift). Four types of peridotite xenoliths were investigated to constrain the thermal and chemical evolution of the lithospheric mantle. Group I, III and IV peridotites provide evidence of a cold, highly deformed and heterogeneous upper mantle. Textures, thermobarometry and trace element characteristics of minerals indicate that low temperatures in the spinel stability field (∼750–800°C at <1·5 GPa) were attained by decompression and cooling from initially high pressures and temperatures in the garnet stability field (970–1080°C at 2·3–2·9 GPa). Cooling, decompression and penetrative deformation are consistent with lithospheric thinning, probably related to the development of the Mesozoic to Paleogene Anza Graben. Re-equilibrated and recrystallized peridotite xenoliths (Group II) record heating (from ∼800°C to ∼1100°C). Mineral trace element signatures indicate enrichment by mafic silicate melts, parental to the Quaternary host basanites and alkali basalts. Relationships between mineral textures, P–T conditions of equilibration, and geochemistry can be explained by metasomatism and heating of the lithosphere related to the formation of the Kenya rift, above a zone of hot upwelling mantle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Whole rock major and trace element abundances in aluminous garnet–spinel websterite, sapphirine-bearing Mg–Al granulite and hibonite-bearing Ca–Al granulite xenoliths from the Chyulu Hills volcanic field, Kenya, suggest that the samples represent a meta-igneous suite linked by fractionation. The incompatible major element contents increase from the websterites to the Mg–Al granulites and further to the Ca–Al granulites. High bulk rock Mg#s and very low concentrations of most incompatible trace elements indicate that the rocks are cumulates rather than crystallized melts. Elevated Ni abundances, impoverishment in Cr and HFSE and high contents of normative plagioclase and olivine in the granulites indicate that their protoliths were similar to troctolite. The textures and metamorphic reaction paths recorded in the granulites suggest igneous emplacement in the crust and cooling from igneous to ambient crustal temperatures accompanied or followed by compression. For the websterite xenoliths, there is an apparent contradiction between the results of P– T calculations that suggest high P and T of crystallization of early generation pyroxenes and elevated P– T conditions during final equilibration (1.4–2.2 GPa/740–980°C) on the one hand and the positive Eu anomaly that suggests shallow-level plagioclase accumulation on the other hand. This contradiction can be reconciled by a model of compression of a plagioclase-bearing (gabbroic) protolith to mantle depths where it recrystallized to an ultramafic assemblage, which requires foundering of dense lower crustal material into the mantle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basanites of the Chyulu Hills (Kenya Rift) contain mafic Mg–Al and Ca–Al granulite xenoliths. Their protoliths are interpreted as troctolitic cumulates; however, the original mineral assemblages were almost completely transformed by subsolidus reactions. Mg–Al granulites contain the minerals spinel, sapphirine, sillimanite, plagioclase, corundum, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and garnet, whereas Ca–Al granulites are characterized by hibonite, spinel, sapphirine, mullite, sillimanite, plagioclase, quartz, clinopyroxene, corundum, and garnet. In the Mg–Al granulites, the first generation of orthopyroxene and some spinel may be of igneous origin. In the Ca–Al granulites, hibonite (and possibly some spinel) are the earliest, possibly igneous, minerals in the crystallization sequence. Most pyroxene, spinel and corundum in Mg–Al and Ca–Al granulites formed by subsolidus reactions. The qualitative P–T path derived from metamorphic reactions corresponds to subsolidus cooling, probably accompanied, or followed by, compression. Final equilibration was achieved at T ≈ 600–740°C and P <8 kbar, in the stability field of sillimanite. The early coexistence of corundum and pyroxenes (± spinel), as well as the association of sillimanite and sapphirine with clinopyroxene and the presence of hibonite, makes both types of granulite rare. The Ca–Al hibonite-bearing granulites are unique. Both types enlarge the spectrum of known Ca–Al–Mg-rich granulites worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]