The Kharamai kimberlite field, Siberia: modification of the lithospheric mantle by the Siberian Trap event

Abstract

The kimberlites of the Kharamai field intruded through the Siberian Traps shortly after their eruption in Permo-Triassic time. The composition and thermal state of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) beneath the Kharamai field in lower Triassic time have been reconstructed using major- and trace-element analyses of 345 Cr-pyrope garnet xenocrysts from six of the kimberlites, supplemented by a small suite of mantle-derived peridotite xenoliths. The data define a geotherm lying near a 38 mW/m 2 conductive model to a depth of ca 170 km, where the base of the depleted lithosphere is defined by a marked increase in melt-related metasomatism and by an inflected geotherm. Compared to the SCLM sampled by Devonian (pre-Trap) kimberlites in the same and adjacent terranes, the Kharamai SCLM in Triassic time was warmer and was cooling from a previous thermal high. It was also thinner than the SCLM beneath the Daldyn and Alakit kimberlite fields, and had been strongly metasomatised. The metasomatism lowered the mean Fo content of olivine (from ≥Fo 93 to Fo 92), greatly reduced the proportion of subcalcic harzburgites, and increased the proportion of fertile lherzolites, especially in the depth range of 80–130 km. The overall pattern of metasomatism is similar to that observed in the SCLM sampled by the Group I kimberlites of the SW Kaapvaal Craton, and inferred to be related to the Karoo thermal event. These observations suggest that events such as the eruption of the Karoo basalts and Siberian Traps change the composition of the SCLM, but do not necessarily destroy it, at distances of several hundred kilometres from the main eruption centres.