Model for upper mantle below Malaita, Solomon Islands, deduced from chemistry of lherzolite and megacryst minerals

Abstract

Clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and garnet megacrysts show consistent increase of Na and Ti, and decrease of Cr, with increasing Fe/Mg. Three groups of clinopyroxenes occur with increasing Fe/Mg: subcalcic diopside, lamellar intergrowth with ilmenite, and augite. Chemical relationships indicate simultaneous crystallization of garnet, orthopyroxene and sub-calcic diopside megacrysts, and pyroxene thermometry-barometry indicates a trend from 29 kb−1,230 ° C to 25 kb−1,080 ° C as crystallization proceeded to higher Fe/Mg. Ilmenite-pyroxene thermometry suggests a mean of 965 ° C for crystallization of the intergrowths, but calibration depends on crystal-chemical assumptions. Lherzolite assemblages fall into three groups: two garnet-bearing types which equilibrated at 31 kb−1,150 ° C and 22 kb−900 ° C, and a type bearing Al-rich spinel which probably crystallized below 20 kb. The minerals from the lherzolites have lower Fe/Mg than the megacrysts. The simplest model involves: (i) metamorphic equilibration of lherzolitic rocks to the local geotherm, (ii) local melting of lherzolite at P > 30 kb, (iii) sequential crystallization of megacrysts as the magma rose intermittently, (iv) generation of alnoitic magma at P > 32 kb, and (v) eruption to surface with transport of megacrysts and lherzolitic xenoliths. Garnet, olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene in these Malaita xenoliths have lower Na, Ti, and P relative to their equivalents from southern African kimberlites. Only clinopyroxene contains K (up to 270 ppmw), and no Na was found in olivine.