Experimental peridotite–melt reaction at one atmosphere: a textural and chemical study

Abstract

Sieve-textured clinopyroxene and spinel are common in mantle xenoliths and have been interpreted to be the result of partial melting, mantle metasomatism and host magma–xenolith reaction during transport. In this paper, we test the latter hypothesis with a series of reduced and oxidized experiments at 1,200 and 1,156°C at one atmosphere using a synthetic leucitite melt and discs of natural peridotite. Our results show that sieve texture development on clinopyroxene and spinel in mantle xenoliths is the result of a multistage reaction process. In the first step, orthopyroxene undergoes incongruent dissolution to produce a silica and alkali-rich melt together with olivine. As this melt migrates along grain boundaries it causes incongruent dissolution of clinopyroxene and spinel. The incongruent dissolution mechanism involves complete dissolution of the clinopyroxene or spinel followed by nucleation and growth of a secondary clinopyroxene or spinel once the reacting melt is saturated. The reaction of orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and spinel with infiltrated host magma results in a range of melt compositions that are very similar to those interpreted to be due to very small degrees of partial melting.