The petrology of ultramafic xenoliths from Summit Lake, near Prince George, British Columbia

Abstract

Approximately 200 upper mantle xenoliths from Summit Lake, near Prince George, British Columbia, were collected from a basanitoid flow of Late Cenozoic (possibly post-glacial) age. The most abundant xenolith is spinel lherzolite (55%), with subordinate wehrlite (22%), clinopyroxenite (10%), olivine websterite (10%), websterite (2%) and dunite (1%). Xenoliths have granular textures and both green chrome diopside-bearing and black aluminous augitebearing xenoliths are present. About 5% of the xenoliths are banded on a cm scale, suggesting that the upper mantle beneath north-central British Columbia is heterogeneous on a scale of cm to meters. Microprobe data on the mineral phases indicate that the xenoliths are generally well equilibrated. Typically in spinel lherzolite, olivines are Fo89, orthopyroxenes are En90 and chrome diopside is Wo45En50Fs5. Spinels vary in composition from xenolith to xenolith. The evidence for partial melting observed in five xenoliths, may be due to heating during incorporation of the xenoliths within the host magma or to instability caused by decompression as the xenoliths are transported to the surface. Using element partition geothermometers, equilibration temperatures are calculated to be between 1080–1100° C. Pressures, estimated from a Cordilleran geotherm, are between 18–20 kbar. These temperatures are somewhat higher than estimates from xenoliths from other localities in Late Cenozoic alkali basalts in south and central British Columbia. It is concluded, therefore, that either the Summit Lake suite represents samples from a deeper source region in the upper mantle or the Late Cenozoic geotherm varied in time and space.