Magmatic modification of the uppermost mantle beneath the Basin and Range to Colorado Plateau Transition Zone; Evidence from xenoliths, Wikieup, Arizona |
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| Authors: | Anne V McGuire Samuel B Mukasa |
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| Institution: | (1) Dept. of Geosciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004-5503, U.S.A. e-mail: amcguire @uh.edu, US;(2) Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, U.S.A., US |
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| Abstract: | Upper mantle xenoliths from Wikieup, AZ, provide abundant evidence for magmatic modification of the uppermost mantle beneath
the Transition Zone between the Colorado Plateau and the southern Basin and Range province. Upper mantle lithologies in this
xenolith suite are represented by spinel peridotite, wehrlite, plagioclase peridotite, and Al-augite group pyroxenites. Isotopic
data for these xenoliths yield relatively uniform values and suggest a common petrogenesis. Al-augite-bearing gabbro and pyroxenite
xenoliths from this locality are interpreted to have formed by crystal fractionation processes from parent alkali basalts
similar to the Wikieup host basalt. Mineral and whole rock compositions show consistent trends of increasing incompatible
element contents (Fe, Al, Ca, Na, K, LIL, and LREE), and decreasing compatible element contents (Mg, Cr, Ni) from spinel peridotite
to wehrlite to plagioclase peridotite to the host basalt composition. These compositional trends are interpreted as resulting
from varying degrees of magma-mantle wall rock interaction as ascending mafic magmas infiltrated upper mantle peridotite.
Small degrees of melt infiltration resulted in slightly modified spinel peridotite compositions while moderate degrees metasomatized
spinel peridotite to wehrlite, and the highest degrees metasomatized it to plagioclase peridotite. Whole rock compositions
and clinopyroxene, plagioclase, and whole rock isotopic data suggest that the infiltrating magmas were the same as those from
which the gabbros and pyroxenites crystallized, and that they were alkalic in composition, similar to the Wikieup host alkali
olivine basalts. Relatively uniform 143Nd/144Nd for the mineral separates and whole rocks in spite of the significantly wide range in their 147Sm/144Nd (0.71–0.23 in clinopyroxene) suggests that the Wikieup xenoliths including gabbro, pyroxenite, peridotite, wehrlite, and
plagioclase peridotite, are all relatively young rocks formed or metasomatized by a relatively recent magmatic episode.
Received: 21 May 1996 / Accepted: 23 December 1996 |
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