Composition and Miocene deformation of the lithospheric mantle adjacent to the Marlborough Fault System in North Canterbury

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mantle xenoliths in a nephelinite in the Little Lottery River provide insight into the Miocene mantle adjacent to the Australia-Pacific plate boundary in N Canterbury. The xenoliths comprise peridotite and pyroxenite extracted from depths of ∼ 40 to 60 km. The olivine Mg# < 89, a lack of spinel and occurrence of ilmenite, elevated bulk Cr and Al, light rare Earth element (REE)-enriched clinopyroxene, and 87Sr/86Sr15 Ma clinopyroxene populations (0.7029–0.7047) in most harzburgite and dunite samples, and in all lherzolite, wehrlite, olivine websterite and orthopyroxenites, indicate that most are the product of reaction of depleted peridotite with Fe, Ti, Al and light REE-bearing silicate melts of basaltic or similar composition. Available isotopic data indicate that the xenoliths could be derived from mantle lithosphere beneath the Hikurangi Plateau, in which case the reactive melts may have been associated with the Cretaceous plateau formation. Extensive recrystallisation of olivine indicates that portions of this lithosphere mantle were affected by the deformation close to the time of entrainment. Since the eruption occurred at ∼ 15 Ma, these textures require that the mantle lithosphere in this area was deforming before formation of today's expression of the proximal Hope Fault strand of the Australia-New Zealand plate boundary.