Garnet - Spinel Peridotites from Potrok Aike: An insight into thePatagonian Lithospheric Mantle.

SCHROTT, C.; NTAFLOS, T.; BJERG, E.A.; TSCHEGG, C.

Viena, Austria

Conferencia; European Geosciences Union Meeting 2009; 2009

EGU

The mantle-xenolith bearing hyaloclastic tephra from Potrok Aike, located 68 km SW of Río Gallegos, Argentina, provide good opportunities for studying the lithospheric mantle beneath southern Patagonia. The Potrok Aike maar belongs to the Pliocene to Holocene Pali Aike volcanic field located east of the Andean volcanic arc. The studied samples are spinel-bearing and garnet + spinel-bearing lherzolites and harzburgites. The entire suite of the studied mantle-xenoliths have protogranular to protogranular-equigranular textures. The most interesting textural features are the kelyphitic rims around both garnet and spinel, that clearly demonstrate break-down of garnet in spinel bearing xenoliths. Detailed petrographic investigations showed different degrees of kelyphitisation. Another feature is the intergranular growth of clinopyroxene, representing a late metasomatic event. No hydrous minerals were so far found in the studied xenoliths. The mantle-xenolith bearing hyaloclastic tephra from Potrok Aike, located 68 km SW of Río Gallegos, Argentina, provide good opportunities for studying the lithospheric mantle beneath southern Patagonia. The Potrok Aike maar belongs to the Pliocene to Holocene Pali Aike volcanic field located east of the Andean volcanic arc. The studied samples are spinel-bearing and garnet + spinel-bearing lherzolites and harzburgites. The entire suite of the studied mantle-xenoliths have protogranular to protogranular-equigranular textures. The most interesting textural features are the kelyphitic rims around both garnet and spinel, that clearly demonstrate break-down of garnet in spinel bearing xenoliths. Detailed petrographic investigations showed different degrees of kelyphitisation. Another feature is the intergranular growth of clinopyroxene, representing a late metasomatic event. No hydrous minerals were so far found in the studied xenoliths. The entire suite of the studied mantle-xenoliths have protogranular to protogranular-equigranular textures. The most interesting textural features are the kelyphitic rims around both garnet and spinel, that clearly demonstrate break-down of garnet in spinel bearing xenoliths. Detailed petrographic investigations showed different degrees of kelyphitisation. Another feature is the intergranular growth of clinopyroxene, representing a late metasomatic event. No hydrous minerals were so far found in the studied xenoliths. The entire suite of the studied mantle-xenoliths have protogranular to protogranular-equigranular textures. The most interesting textural features are the kelyphitic rims around both garnet and spinel, that clearly demonstrate break-down of garnet in spinel bearing xenoliths. Detailed petrographic investigations showed different degrees of kelyphitisation. Another feature is the intergranular growth of clinopyroxene, representing a late metasomatic event. No hydrous minerals were so far found in the studied xenoliths. The entire suite of the studied mantle-xenoliths have protogranular to protogranular-equigranular textures. The most interesting textural features are the kelyphitic rims around both garnet and spinel, that clearly demonstrate break-down of garnet in spinel bearing xenoliths. Detailed petrographic investigations showed different degrees of kelyphitisation. Another feature is the intergranular growth of clinopyroxene, representing a late metasomatic event. No hydrous minerals were so far found in the studied xenoliths.