Nature and timing of multiple metasomatic events in the sub-cratonic lithosphere beneath Labait, Tanzania

Abstract

Petrography, mineral major- and trace element analyses and Rb–Sr and Sm–Nd systematics of xenoliths from Labait volcano, north-central Tanzania, document multiple metasomatic events after initial depletion of the Archaean sub-lithospheric mantle. Four distinct metasomatic phases occurred during the 2.8–3.2 Ga history of the mantle section of the Tanzanian craton. 1) Garnet and Cr-diopside in two depleted lherzolites record LREE enrichment in an early cryptic metasomatic event (~ 2 Ga) resulting in unradiogenic ε Nd (− 6.6) and relatively radiogenic Sr signature ( 87Sr/ 86Sr = 0.7049); 2) Four texturally equilibrated peridotites contain phlogopite and Cr-diopside inferred to be introduced by a hydrous melt/fluid that produced LREE enrichment related to the subduction and collision during the 650 Ma Pan-African Orogeny; 3) Fe-enrichment is observed in many garnet-free wehrlites and dunites having low Mg# olivines. Timing of this enrichment event remains poorly defined; and 4) One spinel lherzolite records orthopyroxene replacing clinopyroxene due to recent infiltration of a rift-related H 2O poor, K-alkaline silicate melt. This ongoing metasomatic reaction caused by rift-related magmatism would result in the conversion of lherzolite to orthopyroxene-rich harzburgite. The reaction possibly represents the mechanism involved in the formation of orthopyroxene-rich sub-continental lithospheric mantle below the Kaapvaal and Siberian cratons. Generally, the rift-related metasomatism beneath Tanzania has caused formation of interstitial clinopyroxene, melt veins and melt pockets and new rims of phlogopite, all of which are in chemical disequilibrium with the original xenolith mineralogy.