Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fractionation of platinum group elements in upper mantle: Evidence from peridotite xenoliths from Wangqing

  • Published:
Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The peridotite xenoliths from Wangqing display a downward-concave PGE pattern with Pt at maximum due to Pt-Pd fractionation, which is different from the flat or negatively sloped patterns commonly observed for worldwide peridotite xenoliths and massifs. Taking into account the difference in partition coefficients of Pt and Pd between alloy and sulfide melt, it is suggested that some of the Wangqing peridotites must have been equilibrated with a melt in which alloy and sulfide coexisted. Segregation of Pt-rich alloy from Pd-sulfide melts due to density contrast and extraction of residual melts without sulfide saturation resulted in the fractionation of Pt from Pd.

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

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Mitchell, R. H., Keays, R. R., Abundance and distribution of gold, palladium and iridium in some spinel and garnet Iherwlites: implications for the nature and origin of precious metal-rich intergranular components in the upper mantle,Geochim. Cosmachim. Acta, 1981, 45: 2425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Morgan, J. W. J., Wandless, G. A., Petrie, R. K. et al., Composition of the Earth’s upper mantle-I: siderophile trace elements in ultramafic nodules,Tectonophysics, 1981, 75: 47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Wilson, M. R., Kyser, T. K., Gagan, R., Sulphur isotope systematic and platinum element behavior in REE-enriched metasomatic fluids: a study of mantle xenoliths from Dish Hill, California, USA,Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1993, 60: 1933.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kimura, K., Lewis, R. S., Anders, E., Distribution of gold and rhenium between nickel-iron and silicate melts: implications for the abundance of siderophile elements on the Earth and Moon,Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1974, 38: 683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Pattou, L., Lorand, J. P., Gros, M., Non-chondritic platinum-group element ratios in the Earth’s mantle,Nature, 1996, 379: 712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lorand, J. P., Keays, R. R., Bodinier, J. L., Capper and noble metal enrichments across the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary of the mantle diapir: evidence from the Lanzo lherzolite massif,J. Petrol., 1993, 34: 1110.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Xu, Y. G., Menzies, M. A., Vrwn, P. et al., Texture-temperature-geochemistry relationship in the upper mantle as revealed from spinel peridotite xenoliths from Wangqing, NE China,J. Petrol., 1998, 39(3): 469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Xu, Y. G., Lin, C. Y., Menzies, M. A. et al., Significance of mineral chemistry of the spinel peridotite xenolith from Wangqing, Jilin Province: thermal history and mantle metasomatism,Geochimica, 1996, 25: 481.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Barnes, S. J., Body, R., Korneliussen, A. et al., The use of mantle normalization and metal ratios in discriminating between the effects of partial melting, crystal fractionation and sulphide segregation on platinum-group elements, gold, nickel, copper: examples from Norway, inGeoplatinum 87 (eds. Prichard, H. M., Bowles, J. W., Potts, P. et al.), Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1988, 113–143.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gueddari, K., Piboule, M., Amosee, J., Differentiation of platinum-group element (PGE) and of gold during partial melting of peridotites in the lherwlitic massifs of the BeticeRifean range (Ronda and Beni Bousera),Chem. Geol., 1996, 134: 181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Peach, C. L., Mathez, E. A., Keays, R. R. et al., Experimentally determined sulfide melt-silicate melt partition coefficients for iridum and palladium,Chem. Geol., 1994, 117: 361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ionov, D. A., Hoefs, J., Wdepohl, K. H. et al., Content and isotopic composition of sulfur in ultramsfic xenoliths from central Asia,Earth Planet Sci. Lett., 1992, 111: 235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Lorand, J. P., Pattou, L., Platinum-group element contents of mantle peridotite xenoliths from France,J. Conference Abstracts, Goldschmide Conference, March 31—April 4, 1996, l(1): 369.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Keays, R. R., The role of komatiitic and picritic magmatism and S-saturation in the formation of ore deposits,Lithos, 1995, 34: 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Fleet, M. E., Stone, W. E., Partitioning of platinum-group element in the Fe-Ni-S system and their fractionation in nature,Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1991, 55: 245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Wushan, China

    Yigang Xu

  2. Laboratoire de Geochronologie, Universite, F-75251, Paris 7, Paris, France

    B. Orberger

  3. School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, 3052, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    S. J. Reeves

Authors
  1. Yigang Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. B. Orberger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. J. Reeves
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Project supported by the Ministry of Human Affairs and a part of an international collaboration program between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France), and Australian Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Engineering (AINSE) grant to SJR.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xu, Y., Orberger, B. & Reeves, S.J. Fractionation of platinum group elements in upper mantle: Evidence from peridotite xenoliths from Wangqing. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 41, 354–361 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02932685

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02932685

Keywords

Search

Navigation