Amphibole-rich xenoliths and host alkali basalts: petrogenetic constraints and implications on the recent evolution of the upper mantle beneath Ahaggar (Central Sahara, Southern Algeria)

Abstract

Quaternary basanitic to nephelinitic volcanoes from Tahalra (western Ahaggar, southern Algeria) contain numerous Mg-ilmenite and amphibole-rich inclusions (±olivine, ±salite) and spinel lherzolite (±pargasite) inclusions associated with kaersutite megacrysts. On the basis of petrological, geochemical and Sr isotopic study of representative xenoliths (including a composite nodule defined as a vein cross-cutting peridotite) and lavas, we attribute the series of amphibole-rich xenoliths and megacrysts to segregation under upper mantle conditions from a hydrous high Ti and LREE melt geochemically similar to the Quaternary basanite but isotopically different. Amphibole-rich rocks and megacrysts are the results of magmatic events (less than 40 Ma) probably contemporaneous with the various pre-Quaternary volcanic phases recognized in Ahaggar. The amphibole-rich veins and the Quaternary lavas have a garnet lherzolitic source enriched in REE (7 to 9 times chondritic in LREE, 2 times in HREE). This enrichment probably results from former metasomatic events unrelated to the recent magmatic history. Melts from which these veins precipitated within upper mantle peridotite also account for mantle enrichment processes; they induced a local partial melting and contact metasomatism (pargasitization). The upper mantle beneath the volcanic areas of Ahaggar is veined and hydrous, and consequently lightened: thus, the uplift of basement may be the isostatic response to magmatism and related metasomatism and therefore the result of the Cenozoic igneous activity.