Analogues of exhumed pyroxenite layers in the Alboran domain sampled as xenoliths by Middle Atlas Cenozoic volcanism

Irene Pezzali; Lyderic France; Gilles Chazot; R. Vannucci

doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2015.02.024

Journal articles

Analogues of exhumed pyroxenite layers in the Alboran domain sampled as xenoliths by Middle Atlas Cenozoic volcanism

Irene Pezzali ^{1, 2, *} Lyderic France ³ Gilles Chazot ² R. Vannucci ¹

* Corresponding author

1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell'Ambiente

2 LDO - Domaines Océaniques

3 CRPG - Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques

Abstract : The evolutionary stages of lithospheric mantle in the Alboran domain are recorded by peridotites and associated pyroxenites outcropping in the Betic–Rifean orogenic belt. We show here that the scale of lithospheric mantle interpretation can be extended up to at least 300 km farther south of Beni Bousera thanks to the occurrence in Middle Atlas Cenozoic volcanics of rare pyroxenite mantle xenoliths, which unlike most peridotite xenoliths still preserve their pre-metasomatic geochemical signatures. These pyroxenites closely match mafic layers from Ronda and Beni Bousera occurrences and include, in addition to more common Spl-facies pyroxenites and former Grt-bearing pyroxenites accreted to the lithosphere and equilibrated under Spl-facies condition, also former Pl-bearing cumulates that represent old sectors of delaminated lower crust. The close similarity of Middle Atlas pyroxenite xenoliths to mafic layers in the Alboran domain makes the region comprising the Betic-Rifean belt and Middle Atlas one of the few occurrences that allow petrological and chemical information from exhumed mantle sectors to be combined with that from non-exhumed sectors, which only a few million years later were brought to the surface by volcanic activity.

Keywords : Rare earth elements Subcontinental lithospheric mantle Middle Atlas Mantle xenoliths Pyroxenites

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Sciences of the Universe [physics] / Earth Sciences / Mineralogy

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Submitted on : Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - 11:15:03 AM
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Analogues of exhumed pyroxenite layers in the Alboran domain sampled as xenoliths by Middle Atlas Cenozoic volcanism

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Analogues of exhumed pyroxenite layers in the Alboran domain sampled as xenoliths by Middle Atlas Cenozoic volcanism

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