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Lithosphere formation in the central Slave Craton (Canada): plume subcretion or lithosphere accretion?

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Abstract

Major-element compositions of minerals in peridotite xenoliths from the Lac de Gras kimberlites provide constraints on the mode of lithosphere formation beneath the central Slave Craton, Canada. Magnesia contents of reconstructed whole rocks correlate positively with NiO and negatively with CaO contents, consistent with variable partial melt extraction. Alumina and Cr2O3 contents are broadly positively correlated, suggestive of melt depletion in the absence of a Cr–Al phase. Garnet modes are high at a given Al2O3 content (a proxy for melt depletion), falling about a 7 GPa melt depletion model. These observations, combined with high olivine Mg# and major-element relationships of FeO-poor peridotites (<7.5 wt%) indicative of melt loss at pressures >3 GPa (residual FeO content being a sensitive indicator of melt extraction pressure), and similar high pressures of last equilibration (∼4.2 to 5.8 GPa), provide multiple lines of evidence that the mantle beneath the central Slave Craton has originated as a residue from high-pressure melting, possibly during plume subcretion. Apparent low melt depletion pressures for high-FeO peridotites (>7.5 wt%) could suggest formation in an oceanic setting, followed by subduction to their depth of entrainment. However, these rocks, which are characterised by low SiO2 contents (<43 wt%), are more likely to be the result of post-melting FeO-addition, leading to spuriously low estimates of melt extraction pressures. They may have reacted with a silica-undersaturated melt that dissolved orthopyroxene, or experienced olivine injection by crystallising melts. A secular FeO-enrichment of parts of the deep mantle lithosphere is supported by lower average Mg# in xenolithic olivine (91.7) compared to olivine inclusions in diamond (92.6).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank C. Lawson for help with EPMA. This work was funded by a Macquarie University International Postgraduate Award and Postgraduate Research Fund (SA), by an ARC SPIRT grant sponsored by Kennecott Canada Inc., and by ARC Large and Discovery Grants to WLG and SYO’R. Analytical data were obtained using instrumentation funded by ARC LIEF, and DEST Systemic Infrastructure Grants and Macquarie University. Reviews by Dante Canil and Maya Kopylova significantly improved this contribution and editorial handling by Tim Grove is gratefully acknowledged. This is publication number no. 469 from the ARC National Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents (http://www.es.mq.edu.au/GEMOC/).

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  1. Sonja Aulbach

    Present address: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2E3

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GEMOC ARC National Key Centre, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW, 2109,  North Ryde, Australia

    Sonja Aulbach, William L. Griffin, Norman J. Pearson & Suzanne Y. O’Reilly

  2. CSIRO Exploration and Mining, N. Ryde, NSW, 2113, Australia

    William L. Griffin

  3. Lithosphere Services, 4009 Edinburgh Street, Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5C 1R4

    Buddy J. Doyle

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  1. Sonja Aulbach
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Correspondence to Sonja Aulbach.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Aulbach, S., Griffin, W.L., Pearson, N.J. et al. Lithosphere formation in the central Slave Craton (Canada): plume subcretion or lithosphere accretion?. Contrib Mineral Petrol 154, 409–427 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-007-0200-1

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