Remnants of boninitic melts in the upper mantle beneath the central Pannonian Basin?

Abstract

We present a detailed textural and compositional study of two orthopyroxene-rich olivine websterites. One occurs as a vein in a harzburgite xenolith and the other is an individual xenolith, both found at Szentbekkalla in the Bakony–Balaton Highland Volcanic Field (central Pannonian Basin, western Hungary). The textural features of these orthopyroxene-rich rocks suggest that they crystallized from silicate melts to form veins in peridotite mantle rock. Their geochemical features, such as the presence of Al2O3-poor orthopyroxenes, Cr-rich spinels, and clinopyroxenes with U-shaped chondrite-normalized REE-patterns, indicate that the vein material formed from Mg-rich silicic (boninitic) melts at mantle depths. The olivine fabric investigation of both the veins and the wall-rock suggest that the development of the veins was followed by subsequent recrystallization during the Cenozoic evolution of the Carpathian–Pannonian region.