Growth of the European lithospheric mantle-dependence of upper-mantle peridotite facies and chemical heterogeneity on tectonics and age

Details Growth of the European lithospheric mantle-dependence of upper-mantle peridotite facies and chemical heterogeneity on tectonics and age Growth of the European lithospheric mantle-dependence of upper-mantle peridotite facies and chemical heterogeneity on tectonics and age

Aug 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993pepi...79..219m&link_type=abstract

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 79, Issue 1-2, p. 219-240.

Physics

10

Scientific paper

In Europe, during the Phanerozoic, collision of microplates caused the juxtaposition of disparate lithospheres of variable age and provenance. The complex prehistory of these plates, together with the present-day tectonic regime, generated considerable topography at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. From north to south across Europe there exists a considerable variation in lithosphere thickness, seismic velocity and heat flow, with concomitant changes in the mantle helium flux, the extent, type and source of Cenozoic volcanism, and the age and origin of the lithospheric mantle protolith. Consideration of Moho depth and lithosphere thickness reveals that the lithospheric mantle should be dominated by garnet-diamond facies mantle beneath stable shield areas (e.g. the Baltic Shield) and young mountain belts (e.g. the Alps and Betics), spinel-garnet facies mantle beneath Variscan Europe and spinel-plagioclase facies mantle in the western Mediterranean, Pannonian Basin and Rhinegraben. However, consideration of mantle xenolith data reveals that garnet peridotites are rare beneath Variscan Europe and that plagioclase peridotites are unreported from the Pannonian Basin and the Rhinegraben. A tectonic dimension to lithosphere thickness, as well as a function that relates to the initial stabilisation age, is illustrated by the presence of thick lithosphere (diamond facies) beneath old tectonically stable areas such as the Baltic Shield, and young tectonically active regions such as the Alps. Thermo-tectonic processes have also produced lithosphere under the Archaean of NW Scotland that is as thin as that under parts of the Alpine Orogen (e.g. in western Mediterranean and the Pannonian Basin). Extreme chemical heterogeneity in the lithospheric mantle can result from both time-integrated effects over several billion years (e.g. in the North Atlantic craton) and mixing over several tens of millions of years along the tectonically active southern margin of Europe (e.g. in the Betics).
Volcanic rocks provide a valuable probe of the lithospheric mantle and the asthenosphere, and it is apparent that throughout the Phanerozoic the lithospheric mantle evolved in response to repeated cycles of collision-subduction and intraplate extension. Volcanic rocks erupted during the Caledonian, Variscan and Alpine orogenies were derived from shallow lithospheric reservoirs containing a sedimentary component. In contrast, during syn- or post-orogenic extension volcanic rocks were derived from sub-lithospheric sources or by passive reactivation of young lithospheric mantle.

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