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The evolution of spinel lherzolite xenoliths and the nature of the mantle at Kilbourne Hole, New Mexico

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Abstract

In peridotites, olivine, clinopyroxene, and orthopyroxene are complex solid solutions with wide stability fields. Depending mostly on bulk composition and pressure, these minerals may be accompanied by plagioclase (low pressure), spinel (moderate pressure), or garnet (high pressure), resulting in 4-phase and rarer 5-phase assemblages. Although a particular mineral assemblage is stable over a range of P–T, the compositions of the individual minerals vary with changing P–T conditions. Application of standard geothermobarometers to olivine–clinopyroxene–orthopyroxene–spinel peridotites is problematic. An alternative approach is to use a bulk rock composition to calculate equilibrium phase diagrams to determine the conditions under which a particular assemblage is stable. This requires consideration of the 7-component system SiO2–Al2O3–Cr2O3–FeO–MgO–CaO–Na2O, internally consistent thermodynamic data for end members, and reliable mixing models for all mineral solutions. Experimental studies in simpler systems, and solution models from the literature, permit derivation of multicomponent thermodynamic mixing models for the key minerals. The models, when applied to xenoliths from Kilbourne Hole, constrain P and T of equilibration and are less sensitive to mineral compositional variations, or uncertainty in activity models, than standard thermobarometry. Our modeling provides the first tightly constrained pressure estimates for Kilbourne Hole, placing the xenoliths in the spinel stability field at depths (30–45 km) that correspond to the uppermost mantle beneath the Rio Grande Rift. The fine-grained equigranular lherzolite, porphyroclastic lherzolite, and some harzburgite-dunite specimens equilibrated at average conditions of 11.5 Kbar-930°C, 12 Kbar-990°C, and 13 Kbar-1,080°C, respectively. The mantle beneath the Rio Grande Rift is layered; the fine-grained equigranular lherzolite derives from relatively shallow depth (35 km average), and the porphyroclastic lherzolite from slightly deeper levels. Lying 5–10 km beneath both lherzolites, the harzburgite-dunite represents a depth where melt extraction has significantly altered mantle chemistry and where local thermodynamic equilibrium has not been maintained.

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Acknowledgments

Ashley Russell and Shannon Heinle contributed significantly to this project when they were undergraduate students working with DP at the University of North Dakota. EYA benefitted from many collaborations. Students Chris Long and Eric Kappus worked with her to collect samples and unravel petrography and chemical composition. For a number of years, the samples constituted an undergraduate petrology class project with many fine students. Minghua Ren worked with the students to provide mineral compositions. Randy Keller and Chris Andronicos were always great sounding boards for ideas about Rio Grande Rift evolution. This project was funded by a Texas NHARP grant (003661-0003-2006) to EYA and Robert Stern.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, University of North Dakota, 81 Cornell Street Stop 8358, Grand Forks, ND, 58202-8358, USA

    Dexter Perkins

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Elizabeth Y. Anthony

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Correspondence to Dexter Perkins.

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Perkins, D., Anthony, E.Y. The evolution of spinel lherzolite xenoliths and the nature of the mantle at Kilbourne Hole, New Mexico. Contrib Mineral Petrol 162, 1139–1157 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-011-0644-1

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