Trace-element abundances in the shallow lithospheric mantle of the North Atlantic Craton margin: implications for melting and metasomatism beneath Northern Scotland

Hughes, Hannah, McDonald, Iain ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9066-7244, Faithfull, John W., Brian, G.J. and Downes, Hilary 2015. Trace-element abundances in the shallow lithospheric mantle of the North Atlantic Craton margin: implications for melting and metasomatism beneath Northern Scotland. Mineralogical Magazine 79 (4) , pp. 877-907. 10.1180/minmag.2015.079.4.03

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Abstract

Bulk rock geochemistry and major- and trace-element compositions of clinopyroxene have been determined for three suites of peridotitic mantle xenoliths from the North Atlantic Craton (NAC) in northern Scotland, to establish the magmatic and metasomatic history of subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) below this region. Spinel lherzolites from the southernmost locality (Streap Com'laidh) have non-NAC mantle compositions, while the two northern xenolith suites (Loch Roag and Rinibar) are derived from the thinned NAC marginal keel. Clinopyroxene compositions have characteristic trace-element signatures which show both 'primary' and 'metasomatic' origins. We use Zr and Hf abundances to identify ancient cryptic refertilization in 'primary' clinopyroxenes. We suggest that Loch Roag and Rinibar peridotite xenoliths represent an ancient Archaean-Palaeoproterozoic SCLM with original depleted cratonic signatures which were overprinted by metasomatism around the time of intrusion of the Scourie Dyke Swarm (∼2.4 Ga). This SCLM keel was preserved during Caledonian orogenesis, although some addition of material and/or metasomatism probably also occurred, as recorded by Rinibar xenoliths. Rinibar and Streap xenoliths were entrained in Permo-Carboniferous magmas and thus were isolated from the SCLM ∼200 Ma before Loch Roag xenoliths (in an Eocene dyke). Crucially, despite their geographical location, lithospheric mantle peridotite samples from Loch Roag show no evidence of recent melting or refertilization during the Palaeogene opening of the Atlantic.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QE Geology
Publisher:	Mineralogical Society
ISSN:	0026-461X
Funders:	NERC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	2 February 2015
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 06:52
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/78612

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