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Amphibole pyroxenite xenoliths: Cumulate or replacement phenomena from the upper mantle, Nunivak Island, Alaska

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Abstract

Interstitial to poikilitic amphibole found in garnet pyroxenite xenoliths has been interpreted, in the past, to represent a critically silica undersaturated, residual intercumulus melt trapped by its cumulate assemblage of anhydrous phases. The textural features of such amphibole in pyroxenite xenoliths from Nunivak Island, Alaska, however, are more compatible with an origin by replacement of the anhydrous phases of the pyroxenite, following a period of cooling and sub-solidus recrystallization in the upper mantle. The reaction of amphibole and olivine to give orthopyroxene, observed in two specimens, requires that the associated fluid phase was not critically silica undersaturated. The amphibole is therefore thought to reflect the interaction of an alkali-bearing, migratory, aqueous fluid and an upper mantle consisting of spinel lherzolite cut by veins of spinel and garnet pyroxenite.

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  1. Dept. of Geological Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Donald M. Francis

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  1. Donald M. Francis
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Francis, D.M. Amphibole pyroxenite xenoliths: Cumulate or replacement phenomena from the upper mantle, Nunivak Island, Alaska. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 58, 51–61 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384744

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384744

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