Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The role of mantle-hybridization and crustal contamination in the petrogenesis of lithospheric mantle-derived alkaline rocks: constraints from Os and Hf isotopes

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Rhön area as part of the Central European Volcanic Province (CEVP) hosts an unusual suite of Tertiary 24-Ma old hornblende-bearing alkaline basalts that provide insights into melting and fractionation processes within the lithospheric mantle. These chemically primitive to slightly evolved and isotopically (Sr, Nd, Pb) depleted basalts have slightly lower Hf isotopic compositions than respective other CEVP basalts and Os isotope compositions more radiogenic than commonly observed for continental intraplate alkaline basalts. These highly radiogenic initial 187Os/188Os ratios (0.268–0.892) together with their respective Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic compositions are unlikely to result from crustal contamination alone, although a lack of Os data for lower crustal rocks from the area and limited data for CEVP basalts or mantle xenoliths preclude a detailed evaluation. Similarly, melting of the same metasomatized subcontinental lithospheric mantle as inferred for other CEVP basalts alone is also unlikely, based on only moderately radiogenic Os isotope compositions obtained for upper mantle xenoliths from elsewhere in the province. Another explanation for the combined Nd, Sr and Os isotope data is that the lavas gained their highly radiogenic Os isotope composition through a mantle “hybridization”, metasomatism process. This model involves a mafic lithospheric component, such as an intrusion of a sublithospheric primary alkaline melt or a melt derived from subducted oceanic material, sometime in the past into the lithospheric mantle where it metasomatized the ambient mantle. Later at 24 Ma, thermal perturbations during rifting forced the isotopically evolved parts of the mantle together with the peridotitic ambient mantle to melt. This yielded a package of melts with highly correlated Re/Os ratios and radiogenic Os isotope compositions. Subsequent movement through the crust may have further altered the Os isotope composition although this effect is probably minor for the majority of the samples based on radiogenic Nd and unradiogenic Sr isotope composition of the lavas. If the radiogenic Os isotope composition can be explained by a mantle-hybridization and metasomatism model, the isotopic compositions of the hornblende basalts can be satisfied by ca. 5–25% addition of the mafic lithospheric component to an asthenospheric alkaline magma. Although a lack of isotope data for all required endmembers make this model somewhat speculative, the results show that the Re–Os isotope system in continental basalts is able to distinguish between crustal contamination and derivation of continental alkaline lavas from isotopically evolved peridotitic lithosphere that was contaminated by mafic material in the past and later remelted during rifting. The Hf isotopic compositions are slightly less radiogenic than in other alkaline basalts from the province and indicate the derivation of the lavas from low Lu–Hf parts of the lithospheric mantle. The new Os and Hf isotope data constrain a new light of the nature of such metasomatizing agents, at least for these particular rocks, which represent within the particular volcanic complex the first product of the volcanism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

data are from Mayer et al. (2013)

Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Babuška V, Plomerová J (2006) European mantle lithosphere assembled from rigid microplates with inherited seismic anisotropy. Phys Earth Planet Int 158:264–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett VC, Norman MD, Garcia MO (2000) Rhenium and platinum group element abundances correlated with mantle source components in Hawaiian picrites: sulphides in the plume. Earth Planet Sci Lett 183:513–526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer EE, Griffin WL, O’Reilly SY (2006) Transformation of archaean lithospheric mantle by refertilization: evidence from exposed peridotites in the Western Gneiss Region. Norway J Petrol 47:1611–1636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birck JL, Barman RM, Capmas F (1997) Re-Os isotopic measurements at the femtomole level in natural samples. Geostand Newslett 21:19–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blusztajn J, Hegner E (2002) Osmium isotopic systematics of melilitites from the Tertiary Central European Volcanic Province in SW Germany. Chem Geol 189:91–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogaard PJF, Wörner G (2003) Petrogenesis of basanitic to tholeiitic volcanic rocks from the Miocene Vogelsberg, Central Germany. J Petrol 44:569–602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouvier A, Vervoort JD, Patchett PJ (2008) The Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd isotopic composition of CHUR: constraints from unequilibrated chondrites and implications for the bulk composition of terrestrial planets. Earth Planet Sci Lett 273:48–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandon AD, Creaser RA, Shirey SB, Carlson RW (1996) Osmium recycling in subduction zones. Science 272:861–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brauns CM (2001) A rapid, low-blank technique for the extraction of osmium from geological samples. Chem Geol 176:379–384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cebriá JM, Wilson M (1995) Cenozoic mafic magmatism in Western/Central Europe: a common European asthenospheric reservoir? Terra Nova. Abstracts Suppl 7:162

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta R, Hirschmann MM, Smith ND (2007) Partial melting experiments of peridotite + CO2 at 3 GPa and genesis of alkalic ocean island basalts. J Petrol 48:2093–2124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esperança S, Carlson RW, Shirey SB, Smith D (1997) Dating crust-mantle separation: Re-Os isotopic study of mafic xenoliths from central Arizona. Geology 25:651–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foley S (1992) Vein-plus-wall-rock melting mechanisms in the lithosphere and the origin of potassic alkaline magmas. Lithos 28:435–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garbe-Schonberg C-D (1993) Simultaneous determination of thirty-seven trace elements in twenty-eight international rock standards by ICP-MS. Geostand Newsl 17:81–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garrido CJ, Bodinier JL (1999) Diversity of mafic rocks in the Ronda peridotite: evidence for pervasive melt-rock reaction during heating of subcontinental lithosphere by upwelling asthenosphere. J Petrol 40:729–754

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haase KM, Renno AD (2008) Variation of magma generation and mantle sources during continental rifting observed in Cenozoic lavas from the Eger Rift, Central Europe. Chem Geol 257:195–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haase KM, Goldschmidt B, Garbe-Schönberg CD (2004) Petrogenesis of tertiary continental intra-plate lavas from the Westerwald region. Germany J Petrol 45:883–905

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart GL, Johnson CM, Hildreth W, Shirey SB (2003) New osmium isotope evidence for intracrustal recycling of crustal domains with discrete ages. Geology 31:427–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoernle K, Zhang Y-S, Graham D (1995) Seismic and geochemical evidence for large-scale mantle upwelling beneath the eastern Atlantic and western and central Europe. Nature 374:34–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann AW (1997) Mantle geochemistry: the message from oceanic volcanism. Nature 385:219–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann AW, Jochum KP, Seufert M, White WM (1986) Nb and Pb in oceanic basalts: new constraints on mantle evolution. Earth Planet Sci Lett 79:33–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins JL, Timm C, Millet M-A, Poirier A, Wilson CJN, Leonard G S (2016) Os isotopic constraints on crustal contamination in Auckland volcanic field basalts, New Zealand. Chem Geol 439:83–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ionov DA, Blichert-Toft J, Weis D (2005) Hf isotope compositions and HREE variations in off-craton garnet and spinel peridotite xenoliths from central Asia. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 69:2399–2418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson CM, Beard BL (1993) Evidence from hafnium isotopes for ancient sub-oceanic mantle beneath the Rio Grande rift. Nature 362:441–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung S, Hoernes S (2000) The major- and trace-element and isotope (Sr, Nd, O) geochemistry of Cenozoic alkaline rift-type volcanic rocks from the Rhön area (central Germany): petrology, mantle source characteristics and implications for asthenosphere-lithosphere interactions. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 99:27–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung S, Pfänder JA, Brügmann G, Stracke A (2005) Sources of primitive alkaline volcanic rocks from the Central European Volcanic Province (Rhön, Germany) inferred from Hf, Os and Pb isotopes. Contrib Mineral Petrol 150:546–559

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung S, Pfänder JA, Brauns M, Maas R (2011) Crustal contamination and mantle source characteristics in continental intra-plate volcanic rocks: Pb, Hf and Os isotopes from central European volcanic province basalts. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 75:2664–2683

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung S, Vieten K, Romer RL, Mezger K, Hoernes S, Satir M (2012) Petrogenesis of tertiary alkaline magmas in the Siebengebirge. Germany J Petrol 53:2381–2409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung S, Mezger K, Hauff F, Pack A, Hoernes S (2013) Petrogenesis of rift-related tephrites, phonolites and trachytes (Central European Volcanic Province, Rhön, FRG): Constraints from Sr, Nd, Pb and O isotopes. Chem Geol 354:203–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kempton PD, Harmon RS, Stosch H-G, Hoefs J, Hawkesworth CJ (1988) Open-system O-isotope behaviour and trace element enrichment in the sub-Eifel mantle. Earth Planet Sci Lett 89:273–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kolb M, Paulick H, Kirchenbaur M, Münker C (2012) Petrogenesis of mafic to felsic lavas from the Oligocene Siebengebirge volcanic field (Germany): Implications for the origin of intracontinental volcanism in Central Europe. J Petrol 53:2349–2379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kroner U, Romer RL (2013) Two plates - Many subduction zones: The Variscan orogeny reconsidered. Gondwana Res 24:298–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lassiter JC (2003) Rhenium volatility in subaerial lavas: Constraints from subaerial and submarine portions of the HSDP-2 Mauna Kea drillcore. Earth Planet Sci Lett 214:311–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lippolt HJ (1982) K/Ar age determinations and the correlation of Tertiary volcanic activity in Central Europe. Geol JB Hann D, pp 113–135

  • Lustrino M, Wilson M (2007) The circum-Mediterranean anorogenic Cenozoic igneous province. Earth-Sci Rev 81:1–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer B, Jung S, Romer RL, Stracke A, Haase KM, Garbe-Schönberg CD (2013) Petrogenesis of tertiary hornblende-bearing lavas in the Rhön. Germany J Petrol 54:2095–2123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer B, Jung S, Romer RL, Pfänder JA, Klügel A, Pack A, Gröner E (2014) Amphibole in alkaline basalts from intraplate settings: implications for the petrogenesis of alkaline lavas from the metasomatised lithospheric mantle. Contrib Mineral Petrol 167:989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride JS, Lambert DD, Nicholls Ia, Price RC (2001) Osmium isotopic evidence for crust—mantle interaction in the genesis of continental intraplate basalts from the newer Volcanics Province, Southeastern Australia. J Petrol 42:1197–1218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meisel T, Walker RJ, Irving AJ, Lorand JP (2001) Osmium isotopic compositions of mantle xenoliths: a global perspective. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 65:1311–1323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Münker C, Weyer S, Scherer E, Mezger K (2001) Separation of high field strength elements (Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf) and Lu from rock samples for MC-ICPMS measurements. Geochem Geophys Geosyst. https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GC000183

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfänder JA, Jung S, Münker C, Stracke A, Mezger K (2012) A possible high Nb/Ta reservoir in the continental lithospheric mantle and consequences on the global Nb budget—evidence from continental basalts from Central Germany. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 77:232–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pilet S, Hernandez J, Sylvester P, Poujol M (2005) The metasomatic alternative for ocean island basalt chemical heterogeneity. Earth Planet Sci Lett 236:148–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pilet S, Baker MB, Stolper EM (2008) Metasomatized lithosphere and the origin of alkaline lavas. Science 320:916–919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prodehl C, Mueller S, Gutscher GM, Haak V (1992) Lithospheric cross-sections of the European Cenozoic rift system. Tectonophysics 208:113–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritter JRR, Jordan M, Christensen UR, Achauer U (2001) A mantle plume below the Eifel volcanic fields, Germany. Earth Planet Sci Lett 186:7–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum JM (1993) Mantle phlogopite: a significant lead repository? Chem Geol 106:475–483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudnick RL, Goldstein SL (1990) The Pb isotopic compositions of lower crustal xenoliths and the evolution of lower crustal Pb. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 98(2):192–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudnick RL, Fountain DM (1995) Nature and composition of the continental crust: a lower crustal perspective. Reviews of Geophysics 33(3):267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum JM, Wilson M, Downes H (1997) Multiple enrichment of the Carpathian–Pannonian mantle: Pb–Sr–Nd isotope and trace element constraints. J Geophys Res 102:14947

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saal AE, Rudnick RL, Ravizza GE, Hart SR (1998) Re-Os isotope evidence for the composition, formation and age of the lower continental crust. Nature 393:58–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salters VJM, Zindler A (1995) Extreme 176Hf/ 177Hf in the sub-oceanic mantle. Earth Planet Sci Lett 129:13–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt G, Snow J (2002) Os isotopes in mantle xenoliths from the Eifel volcanic field and the Vogelsberg (Germany): age constraints on the lithospheric mantle. Contrib Mineral Petrol 143:694–705

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitz MD, Vervoort JD, Bowring SA, Patchett PJ (2004) Decoupling of the Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd isotope systems during the evolution of granulitic lower crust beneath southern Africa. Geology 32:405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shirey SB (1997) Re–Os isotopic compositions of Midcontinent rift system picrites: implications for plume—lithosphere interaction and enriched mantle sources. Can J Earth Sci 34:489–503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spera FJ, Bohrson WA (2001) Energy-constrained open-system magmatic processes i: general model and energy-constrained assimilation and fractional crystallization (EC-AFC) formulation. J Petrol 42:999–1018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stosch H-G, Lugmair GW, Seck HA (1986) Geochemistry of granulite-facies lower crustal xenoliths: implications for the geological history of the lower continental crust below the Eifel, West Germany. Geol Soc London Spec Publ 24:309–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stracke A (2012) Earth’s heterogeneous mantle: A product of convection-driven interaction between crust and mantle. Chem Geol 330–331:274–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vervoort JD, Patchett PJ (1996) Behavior of hafnium and neodymium isotopes in the crust: constraints from Precambrian crustally derived granites. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 60:3717–3733

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker RJ, Carlson RW, Shirey SB, Boyd FR (1989) Os, Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope systematics of southern African peridotite xenoliths—implications for the chemical evolution of subcontinental mantle. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 53:1583–1595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wedepohl KH, Baumann A (1999) Central European Cenozoic plume volcanism with OIB characteristics and indications of a lower mantle source. Contrib Mineral Petrol 136:225–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wedepohl KH, Gohn E, Hartmann G (1994) Cenozoic alkali basaltic magmas of Western Germany and their products of differentiation. Contrib Mineral Petrol 115:253–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson M, Downes H (1991) Tertiary-quaternary extension-related alkaline magmatism in Western and Central Europe. J Petrol 32:811–849

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witt-Eickschen G, Kramm U (1997) Mantle Upwelling and Metasomatism beneath Central Europe: geochemical and isotopic constraints from Mantle Xenoliths from the Rhön (Germany). J Petrol 38:479–493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witt-Eickschen G, Kaminsky W, Kramm U, Harte B (1998) The nature of young vein metasomatism in the lithosphere of the west eifel (Germany): geochemical and isotopic constraints from composite mantle xenoliths from the meerfelder maar. J Petrol 39:155–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood SA (1987) Thermodynamic calculations of the volatility of the platinum group elements (PGE): the PGE content of fluids at magmatic temperatures. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 51:3041–3050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wörner G, Zindler A, Staudigel H, Schmincke H-UH-U. (1986) Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope geochemistry of Tertiary and Quaternary alkaline volcanics from West Germany. Earth Planet Sci Lett 79:107–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler PA (1992) European Cenozoic rift system. Tectonophysics 208:91–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank J. A. Pfänder (TU Freiberg) for discussion in the early stages of the manuscript. Financial support to S. J. via DFG grant Ju/326-7 is appreciated. We appreciate the detailed and constructive comments from Laurie Reisberg and an unknown reviewer that substantially improved the manuscript. Jochen Hoefs is warmly thanked for patient and efficient editorial handling.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Geowissenschaften, Institut für Mineralogie und Petrographie, Universität Hamburg, Grindelallee 48, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    B. Mayer & S. Jung

  2. Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive, Tallahassee, FL, 32310, USA

    B. Mayer

  3. Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum-Archäometrie gGmbH, 68159, Mannheim, Germany

    M. Brauns

  4. Institut für Geologie und Mineralogie, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicherstr. 49b, 50674, Cologne, Germany

    C. Münker

Authors
  1. B. Mayer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. Jung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Brauns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. C. Münker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Mayer.

Additional information

Communicated by Jochen Hoefs.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 21 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mayer, B., Jung, S., Brauns, M. et al. The role of mantle-hybridization and crustal contamination in the petrogenesis of lithospheric mantle-derived alkaline rocks: constraints from Os and Hf isotopes. Contrib Mineral Petrol 173, 49 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-018-1473-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-018-1473-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation