The upper mantle beneath Patagonia, Argentina, documented by xenoliths from alkali basalts

BJERG, E. A.; NTAFLOS, TH; KURAT, G; DOBOSI, G; LABUDIA, C

JOURNAL OF SOUTH AMERICAN EARTH SCIENCES

Elsevier

Año: 2005 vol. 18 p. 125 - 145

0895-9811

Mantle xenoliths in alkali basaltic lavas (with ocean-island basalt chemical signatures) and cinder cones occur in several areas of Patagonia. A representative suite of mantle xenoliths was collected in the region between latitudes 408 and 528S and longitudes 678 and 718W in the Rý´o Negro, Chubut, and Santa Cruz provinces, Argentina. Mantle xenoliths in Patagonia display distinguishing peculiarities compared with those of other worldwide occurrences. The lithospheric mantle beneath Patagonia, as inferred from chemical variation diagrams, has experienced only minor melt extractions in the garnet peridotite field and more extensive melt extractions in the spinel lherzolite field. Variably intensive cryptic and modal metasomatism affected the lithospheric mantle in this region. Textural evidence shows that the mantle is moderately to strongly tectonized and recrystallized on both the local and the regional scale, with an overall predominance of deformed textural types. Mineral equilibrium indicates a strongly elevated geotherm similar to the southeast Australia and oceanic geotherms, which is not normal for a continental intraplate tectonic setting. Therefore, the properties of the Patagonian samples are probably related to the presence of rising mantle plume(s) in an extensional tectonic setting.