Abstract
Mössbauer spectra for 17 spinels separated from mantle xenoliths from six different eruptive centers in southern British Columbia, Canada were measured in an effort to accurately determine their Fe3+/total Fe ratios, and to examine lateral and vertical variations in oxygen fugacities (f o2's) calculated for these samples using published thermobarometric methods. Spectra acquired at 298 and 77 K suggest that both Fe2+ and Fe3+ are tetrahedrally coordinated in lherzolite spinels from this alkaline province. Calculatedf o2's for spinel lherzolites from British Columbia range from about 0.5 to 1.5 log units below the fayalite-magnetite-quartz (FMQ) oxygen buffer at 15 kbar using the thermobarometric method of O'Neill and Wall. Thesef o2's are on average more reducing than those reported for the upper mantle beneath the Massif Central and Japanese Arc and fall within the range for fresh MORB glasses and for lherzolite xenoliths from the southwestern United States and Mongolia. Significant variations inf o2 between samples from different eruptive centers with varying ages are absent, indicating that the oxidation state of the upper mantle was not affected by Cenozoic magmatism within this alkaline province.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albee AL, Ray L (1970) Correction factors for electron probe microanalysis of silicates, oxides, carbonates, phosphates and sulphates. Anal Chem 42:1408–1414
Arculus RJ (1985) Oxidation status of the mantle: past and present. Ann Rev Earth Planet Sci 13:75–95
Arculus RJ, Dawson JB, Mitchell RH, Gust DA, Holmes RD (1984) Oxidation states of the upper mantle recorded by megacryst ilmenite in kimberlite and Type A and B spinel lherzolites. Contrib Mineral Petrol 85:85–94
Bancroft GM (1973) Mössbauer Spectroscopy: an introduction for inorganic chemists and geochemists. McGraw-Hill, England, Wiley, New York
Bence Ae, Albee AL (1968) Empirical correction factors for the electron microanalysis of silicates and oxides. J Geol 76:382–403
Brearley M, Scarfe CM, Fujii T (1984) Petrology of ultramafic xenoliths from Summit Lake, near Prince George, British Columbia. Contrib Mineral Petrol 88:53–63
Canil D, Brearley M, Scarfe CM (1987) Petrology of ultramafic xenoliths from Rayfield River, south-central British-Columbia. Can J Earth Sci 24:1679–1687
Canil D, Scarfe CM (1989) Origin of phlogopite in mantle xenoliths from Kostal Lake, Wells Gray Park, British Columbia. J Petrol in press
Christie DM, Carmichael ISE, Langmuir CH (1986) Oxidation states of mid-ocean ridge basalt glasses. Earth Planet Sci Lett 79:397–411
Eggler DH (1983) Upper mantle oxidation state: evidence from olivine-orthopyroxene-ilmenite assemblages. Geophys Res Lett 10:365–368
Finger LW (1972) The uncertainty in the calculated ferric iron content of a microprobe analysis. Yearb Carnegie Inst Wash 71:600–604
Fujii T, Scarfe CM (1981) Petrology of ultramafic nodules from Boss Mountain, central British Columbia. Geol Assoc Can/Min Assoc Can Abs Prog 6:A20
Fujii T, Scarfe CM, Hamilton TS (1981) Geochemistry of ultramafic nodules from southern British Columbia: evidence for banding in the upper mantle. Geol Assoc Can/Min Assoc Can Abs Prog 6:A20
Fujii T, Scarfe CM (1982) Petrology of ultramafic nodules from West Kettle River, near Kelowna, British Columbia. Contrib Mineral Petrol 80:297–306
Gough DI (1986) Mantle uplow tectonics in the Canadian Cordillera. J Geophys Res 91:1909–1919
Herzberg CT (1978) The bearing of phase equilibria in simple and complex systems on the origin and evolution of some well documented garnet websterite. Contrib Mineral Petrol 66:375–382
Marshall L, Dollase W (1984) Cation arrangement in Fe−Zn−Cr spinel oxides. Am Mineral 69:928–936
Mattioli GS, Wood BJ (1986) Upper mantle oxygen fugacity recorded by spinel lherzolites. Nature 322:626–628
Mattioli GS, Wood BJ (1988) Magnetite activities across the MgAl2O4−Fe3O4 spinel join, with application to thermobarometric estimates of upper mantle oxygen fucacity. Contrib Mineral Petrol 98:148–162
Monger JWH, Price RA, Tempelman-Kluit DJ (1982) Tectonic accretion and the origin of the two major metamorphic and plutonic welts in the Canadian Cordillera. Geology 10:70–75
Nicholls J, Stout MZ, Fiesinger DW (1982) Petrologic variations in Quaternary volcanic rocks, British Columbia and the nature of the underlying upper mantle. Contrib Mineral Petrol 79:201–218
O'Neill HStC (1981) The transition between spinel lherzolite and garnet lherzolite, and its use as a geobarometer. Contrib Mineral Petrol 77:185–195
O'Neill HStC, Ortez N, Arculus RJ, Wall VJ, Green DH (1982) Oxygen fugacities from the assemblage olivine-orthopyroxenespinel. Terra Cognita 2:228
O'Neill HStC, Navrotsky A (1984) Cation distributions and thermodynamic properties of binary spinel solid solutions. Am Mineral 69:733–753
O'Neill HStC, Wall VJ (1987) The olivine-orthopyroxene-spinel oxygen barometer, the nickel precipitation curve, and the oxygen fugacity of the Earth's upper mantle. J Petrol 28:1169–1191
Osborne MD, Fleet ME, Bancroft GM (1981) Fe2+−Fe3+ ordering in chromite and Cr-bearing spinels. Contrib Mineral Petrol 77:251–255
Osborne MD, Fleet ME, Bancroft GM (1984) Next-nearest neighbor effects in the Mössbauer spectra of (Cr, Al) spinels. J Solid State Chem 53:174–183
Smith DGW, Gold C (1979) EDATA2: a FORTRANIV computer program for processing wavelength and/or energy dispersive electron microprobe analyses. In: Newbury DE (ed) Microbeam Anal Soc Proc 14th Ann Conf 273–278
Souther JG (1977) Volcanism and tectonic environments in the Canadian Cordillera — a second look. In: Baragar WRA, Coleman LC, Hall JM (eds) Volcanic regimes in Canada. Geol Assoc Canada Spec Pap 16: 3–24
Sun M (1985) Sr isotopic study of ultramafic nodules from Neogene alkaline lavas of British Columbia, Canada and Josephine Peridotite, southwestern Oregon, USA. Unpubl MSc Thesis, Univ British Columbia, 132 pp
Takahashi E (1986) Genesis of calc-alkali andesite magma in a hydrous mantle-crust boundary: petrology of therzolite xenoliths from the Ichinomegata crater, Oga Peninsula, northeast Japan, Part II. J Volc Geotherm Res 29:355–395
Ulmer GC, Grandstaff DE, Weiss D, Moats M, Buntin TJ, Gold DP, Hatton CJ, Kadik A, Koseluk RA, Rosenhauer M (1987) The mantle redox story; an unfinished story? Geol Soc Am Spec Pap 215:5–23
Virgo D, Luth RW, Moats M, Ulmer GC (1988) Constraints on the oxidation state of the mantle: an electrochemical and57Fe Mössbauer study of mantle-derived ilmenites. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 52:1781–1795
Wells PRA (1977) Pyroxene thermometry in simple and complex systems. Contrib Mineral Petrol 62:129–139
Woermann E, Rosenhauer M (1985) Fluid phases and the redox state of the Earth's mantle. Extrapolations based on experimental, phase theoretical and petrological data. Fortschr Mineral 63:263–349
Wood BJ, Virgo D (1989) Upper mantle oxidation state: ferric iron contents of lherzlite spinels by57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and resultant oxygen fugacities. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 53:1277–1291
Xue X (1988) Isotopic and geochemical study of ultramafic xenoliths from West Kettle River, British Columbia. Unpubl M Sc Thesis, Univ of Alberta, 206 pp
Xue X, Baadsgaard H, Irving AJ, Scarfe CM (1990) Geochemical and isotopic characteristics of the upper mantle beneath West Kettle River, British Columbia: evidence from peridotite xenoliths. J Geophys Res (in press)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Canil, D., Virgo, D. & Scarfe, C.M. Oxidation state of mantle xenoliths from British Columbia, Canada. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 104, 453–462 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01575622
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01575622