A 400 Ma-long Nd-Hf isotopic evolution of melt-modified garnet-pyroxenites in an ancient subcontinental lithosphere (Lanzo North ophiolite, Western Alps)

Abstract

Pyroxenite veining is widely preserved in peridotite massifs, and used to derive information on the origin and evolution of upper mantle domains. These lithospheric mantle sections can be isolated from the convecting mantle for >1 Ga or more, suffering a long history of melting and/or melt-rock reaction processes, which modify their original chemical and isotopic compositions. Here, we show the effect of ancient process of melt-rock reaction in the chemistry of garnet pyroxenites from Lanzo North Massif, an iconic lithospheric mantle section exhumed during the opening of the Jurassic Alpine Tethys. Selected pyroxenites are more than 10 cm thick, and embedded within peridotites that have textures and chemical compositions indicative of a complex history of interaction with migrating melts. Whole rock and clinopyroxene Nd-Hf isotopes of the pyroxenites consistently indicate that the first melt-rock reaction event occurred at ~400 Ma, likely in combination with exhumation from the garnet to the spinel-facies mantle conditions. Two samples still retain textural relicts and chemical evidence of precursor garnet and have high εNd (~12) for comparatively low εHf (~10), when recalculated at 400 Ma, which suggest that they were less affected by this ancient percolation process. The chemical evidence of such a long history of melt-rock reactions was preserved from 400 Ma until present. Finally, two pyroxenites located within plagioclase peridotites show evidence for an event of re-equilibration at plagioclase-facies conditions, likely triggered by infiltration of melt in the host rock. These samples reveal the coexistence of two internal Sm-Nd isochrones at 152 ± 30 Ma and 149 ± 13 Ma, thereby providing temporal constraints to the event of melt impregnation of the host peridotites as consequence of the opening of the Ligurian Tethys ocean.