Petrology and geochemistry of mantle xenoliths from the Kapsiki Plateau (Cameroon Volcanic Line): Implications for lithospheric upwelling

Abstract

Mantle xenoliths hosted by Oligocene alkaline basalts of the Kapsiki Plateau, northern end of the Cameroon Volcanic Line consist of group I spinel and plagioclase peridotites, mainly protogranular and accessorily porphyroclastic. The sub-continental lithospheric mantle here is heterogeneous and encloses both depleted and fertile components. Minerals exhibit wide range major element compositions compared to Nyos and Kumba grabens equivalent rocks. Spinel occurs as homogeneous brown crystals or as composite (brown-core–dark-rim) crystals when in contact with diopside or swatted in melt pools. Clinopyroxene crystals are either spinel exsolution-bearing or exsolution-free, the latter being often skeletal or frameworked and riddled with intracrystalline melt pools. Intraxenolith melt pockets and veinlets are always associated to plagioclase-bearing samples. Feldspars depict two distinctive compositions (An37–66Ab57–32Or6–2 and An3–7Ab52–62Or31–48) partly attributed to host xenolith type and to the involvement in the spinel and/or diopside melting reaction of an infiltrating alkali and carbonate-rich liquid. Petrographic and geochemical data discriminate melt pockets from their host basalts, excluding thus infiltration of basaltic melt as prospective origin. Thermo-barometric estimates reveal that prior to their entrainment the Kapsiki mantle xenoliths experienced two P–T equilibrium stages resulting in subsolidus re-equilibration from spinel- to plagioclase-facies conditions. Furthermore mineral textural relations show that the occurrence of plagioclase and melts inclusions is linked to spinel and/or diopside breakdown, likely subsequent to decompression and/or metasomatic induced melting events predating Oligo-Miocene volcanism.