Petrogenesis and Geodynamic Significance of Ultramafic Inclusions and Basanite from Southern Syria

Abstract

Seventeen upper-mantle ultramafic xenoliths from the Lower Quaternary Tal Khodr Imtan cinder cone in southern Syria have revealed a dominant protogranular texture of nine spinel lherzolites, two spinel harzburgites, four spinel dunites, one spinel olivine websterite, and one spinel clinopyroxenite. The lherzolites, harzburgites, and dunites contain Cr-diopside and brown-red picotite, with a basanitic host rock; the websterite and clinopyroxenite contain Ti-Al-augite and Cr-hercynite. A lherzolite to dunite depletion trend is shown in the abundance of intermediate- and lightrare-earth elements (IREE and LREE) and from analytical data of dunitic olivine, with Ca, Al, Fe, Cr, and Si being the most depleted elements. The depletion probably resulted from successive partial melting. The scoriaceous basanite shows enrichments in REE and trace elements from a plume; the basanitic coating (around ultramafic xenoliths) increases in Mg/Mg+Fe+2 and concentrations of Al2O3, TiO2, and Na2O by contamination from peridot...