Geochemistry, Petrogenesis and Geodynamic Relationships of Miocene Calc-alkaline Volcanic Rocks in the Western Carpathian Arc, Eastern Central Europe

We report major and trace element abundances and Sr, Nd andPb isotopic data for Miocene (16·5–11 Ma) calc-alkalinevolcanic rocks from the western segment of the Carpathian arc.This volcanic suite consists mostly of andesites and dacites;basalts and basaltic andesites as well as rhyolites are rareand occur only at a late stage. Amphibole fractionation bothat high and low pressure played a significant role in magmaticdifferentiation, accompanied by high-pressure garnet fractionationduring the early stages. Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic dataindicate a major role for crustal materials in the petrogenesisof the magmas. The parental mafic magmas could have been generatedfrom an enriched mid-ocean ridge basalt (E-MORB)-type mantlesource, previously metasomatized by fluids derived from subductedsediment. Initially, the mafic magmas ponded beneath the thickcontinental crust and initiated melting in the lower crust.Mixing of mafic magmas with silicic melts from metasedimentarylower crust resulted in relatively Al-rich hybrid dacitic magmas,from which almandine could crystallize at high pressure. Theamount of crustal involvement in the petrogenesis of the magmasdecreased with time as the continental crust thinned. A strikingchange of mantle source occurred at about 13 Ma. The basalticmagmas generated during the later stages of the calc-alkalinemagmatism were derived from a more enriched mantle source, akinto FOZO. An upwelling mantle plume is unlikely to be presentin this area; therefore this mantle component probably residesin the heterogeneous upper mantle. Following the calc-alkalinemagmatism, alkaline mafic magmas erupted that were also generatedfrom an enriched asthenospheric source. We propose that bothtypes of magmatism were related in some way to lithosphericextension of the Pannonian Basin and that subduction playedonly an indirect role in generation of the calc-alkaline magmatism.The calc-alkaline magmas were formed during the peak phase ofextension by melting of metasomatized, enriched lithosphericmantle and were contaminated by various crustal materials, whereasthe alkaline mafic magmas were generated during the post-extensionalstage by low-degree melting of the shallow asthenosphere. Thewestern Carpathian volcanic areas provide an example of long-lastingmagmatism in which magma compositions changed continuously inresponse to changing geodynamic setting. KEY WORDS: Carpathian–Pannonian region; calc-alkaline magmatism; Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes; subduction; lithospheric extension     

Geodynamic significance of ultramafic xenoliths from Eastern Serbia: Relics of sub-arc oceanic mantle?

A suite of highly depleted peridotite xenoliths in East Serbian Palaeogene basanites represents the lithospheric mantle beneath the Balkan Peninsula. The xenoliths are harzburgites, clinopyroxene-poor lherzolites and rare dunites. They contain mostly <5 vol.% of modal clinopyroxene and are characterized by high Mg# in silicates (>91), high Cr# in spinel (mostly 0.5–0.7), and by distinctively low Al₂O₃ contents in orthopyroxene (mostly 1–2 wt.%). They have experienced some mantle metasomatism which has slightly obscured their original composition. Nevertheless, the general characteristics of the xenoliths imply a composition which is significantly more depleted than most non-cratonic sub-continental mantle xenolith suites, as well as orogenic peridotites and abyssal peridotites. Geological and compositional evidence suggests that the xenoliths do not represent Archean mantle. The existence of Proterozoic mantle cannot be entirely excluded, although it is in disagreement with geological evidence. On the other hand, the studied xenoliths are compositionally very similar to peridotites of modern oceanic sub-arc settings. The existence of such a depleted lithospheric mantle segment is also inferred from the presence of rare orthopyroxene-rich xenoliths in the same suite. These are interpreted to have originated as lithospheric precipitates of high-Mg, SiO₂-saturated magmas that require a highly depleted mantle source. Such source is typically required by boninitic-like magmas of intraoceanic suprasubduction settings. A proposed geodynamic model to explain these observations involves accretion or underplating of the lower parts of the Tethyan oceanic lithosphere during the Upper Jurassic closure of the eastern branch of the Vardar ocean.     

Late Weichselian environmental change in Norway,including Svalbard

A synthesis of the principal environmental changes that are inferred to have occurred in Norway and Svalbard (Fig. 1) during the Late-glacial period (14-9 ka BP) is presented. The paper has three sections dealing separately with (I) western Norway, (II) northern Norway and (III) Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The main conditions described include glacial events, sea-level changes, vegetation history and climatic variations. A summary chart of environmental reconstructions is presented for each of the three areas, each including a curve of temperature reconstructions for the Late-glacial period. These indicate some significant regional variations in contemporaneous thermal conditions during the Late-glacial.     

Post-collisional Tertiary–Quaternary mafic alkalic magmatism in the Carpathian–Pannonian region: a review

Mafic alkalic volcanism was widespread in the Carpathian–Pannonian region (CPR) between 11 and 0.2 Ma. It followed the Miocene continental collision of the Alcapa and Tisia blocks with the European plate, as subduction-related calc-alkaline magmatism was waning. Several groups of mafic alkalic rocks from different regions within the CPR have been distinguished on the basis of ages and/or trace-element compositions. Their trace element and Sr–Nd–Pb isotope systematics are consistent with derivation from complex mantle-source regions, which included both depleted asthenosphere and metasomatized lithosphere. The mixing of DMM-HIMU-EMII mantle components within asthenosphere-derived magmas indicates variable contamination of the shallow asthenosphere and/or thermal boundary layer of the lithosphere by a HIMU-like component prior to and following the introduction of subduction components.Various mantle sources have been identified: Lower lithospheric mantle modified by several ancient asthenospheric enrichments (source A); Young asthenospheric plumes with OIB-like trace element signatures that are either isotopically enriched (source B) or variably depleted (source C); Old upper asthenosphere heterogeneously contaminated by DM-HIMU-EMII-EMI components and slightly influenced by Miocene subduction-related enrichment (source D); Old upper asthenosphere heterogeneously contaminated by DM-HIMU-EMII components and significantly influenced by Miocene subduction-related enrichment (source E). Melt generation was initiated either by: (i) finger-like young asthenospheric plumes rising to and heating up the base of the lithosphere (below the Alcapa block), or (ii) decompressional melting of old asthenosphere upwelling to replace any lower lithosphere or heating and melting former subducted slabs (the Tisia block).     

Geochemistry and Sr–Nd isotopic compositions of mantle xenoliths from the Monte Vulture carbonatite–melilitite volcano, central southern Italy

Spinel peridotite xenoliths found in the Monte Vulture carbonatite-melilitite volcano have been derived from the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath central southern Italy. Clinopyroxene-poor lherzolites and harzburgites are the most common rock types, with subordinate wehrlites and dunites. Small quantities of phlogopite and carbonate are present in a few samples. The peridotites record a large degree of partial melting and have experienced subsequent enrichment which has increased their LILE and LREE contents, but in most cases their HFSE contents are low. Despite being carried to the surface by a carbonatite-melilitite host, the whole-rock and clinopyroxene compositions of the xenoliths have a trace-element signature more closely resembling that of silicate-melt metasomatised mantle rather than carbonatite-metasomatised peridotites. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd isotopic ratios for clinopyroxene from the Vulture peridotites are 0.7042-0.7058 and 0.51260-0.5131 respectively. They form a trend away from the depleted mantle to the composition of the host magmas, and show a significant enrichment in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr compared with most European mantle samples. The mantle beneath Monte Vulture has had a complex evolution - we propose that the lithosphere had already undergone extensive partial melting before being affected by metasomatism from a silicate melt which may have been subduction-related.     

Laboratory Kinetic Studies of the Reactions of Cl Atoms with Species of Biogenic Origin: δ3-Carene, Isoprene, Methacrolein and Methyl Vinyl Ketone

The rate coefficients for the reaction between atomic chlorine and a number of naturally occurring species have been measured at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure using the relative rate technique. The values obtained were (4.0 ± 0.8) × 10^-10, (2.1 ± 0.5) × 10^-10, (3.2 ± 0.5) × 10^-10, and (4.9 ± 0.5) × 10^-10 cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1, for reactions with isoprene, methyl vinyl ketone, methacrolein and ³-carene, respectively. The value obtained for isoprene compares favourably with previously reported values. No values have been reported to date for the rate constants of the other reactions.     

The Kråkenes late-glacial palaeoenvironmental project

Kråkenes is the site of a small lake on the west coast of Norway that contains a long sequence of late-glacial sediments. The Younger Dryas is well represented, as a cirque glacier developed in the catchment at this time. This site offers unique opportunities to reconstruct late-glacial environments from independent sources of evidence; physical evidence (glacial geomorphology, sedimentology, palaeomagnetism, radiocarbon dating), and biological evidence from the remains of animals and plants derived from both the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This report describes the background to the site, and the international multidisciplinary project to reconstruct late-glacial and early Holocene environmental and climatic changes at Kråkenes.     

Evidence from polymict ureilite meteorites for a disrupted and re-accreted single ureilite parent asteroid gardened by several distinct impactors

Ureilites are ultramafic achondrites that exhibit heterogeneity in mg# and oxygen isotope ratios between different meteorites. Polymict ureilites represent near-surface material of the ureilite parent asteroid(s). Electron microprobe analyses of >500 olivine and pyroxene clasts in several polymict ureilites reveal a statistically identical range of compositions to that shown by unbrecciated ureilites, suggesting derivation from a single parent asteroid. Many ureilitic clasts have identical compositions to the anomalously high Mn/Mg olivines and pyroxenes from the Hughes 009 unbrecciated ureilite (here termed the “Hughes cluster”). Some polymict samples also contain lithic clasts derived from oxidized impactors. The presence of several common distinctive lithologies within polymict ureilites is additional evidence that ureilites were derived from a single parent asteroid.In situ oxygen three isotope analyses were made on individual ureilite minerals and lithic clasts, using a secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) with precision typically better than 0.2-0.4‰ (2SD) for δ¹⁸O and δ¹⁷O. Oxygen isotope ratios of ureilitic clasts fall on a narrow trend along the CCAM line, covering the range for unbrecciated ureilites, and show a good anti-correlation with mineral mg#. SIMS analysis identifies one ferroan lithic clast as an R-chondrite, while a second ferroan clast is unlike any known meteorite. An exotic enstatite grain is derived from an enstatite chondrite or aubrite, and another pyroxene grain with Δ¹⁷O of −0.4 ± 0.2‰ is unrelated to any known meteorite type.Ureilitic olivine clasts with mg#s < 85 are much more common than those with mg# > 85 which include the melt-inclusion-bearing “Hughes cluster” ureilites. Thus melt was present in regions of the parent ureilite asteroid with a bulk mg# > 85 when the asteroid was disrupted by impact, giving rise to two types of ureilites: common ferroan ones that were residual after melting and less common magnesian ones that were still partially molten when disruption occurred. One or more daughter asteroids re-accreted from the remnants of the mantle of the proto-ureilite asteroid. Polymict ureilite meteorites represent regolith that subsequently formed on the surface of a daughter asteroid, including impact-derived material from at least six different meteoritic sources.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987115000663

Mantle xenocrysts from early Triassic kimberlite pipes from Kharamai,Ary-Mastakh and Kuranakh fields in the Anabar shield of Siberia revealing similar compositional trends were studied to estimate the superplume influence on the subcratonic lithosphere mantle(SCLM).Pressure-temperature(PT) reconstructions using monomineral thermobarometry for 5 phases show division of the SCLM beneath the Kharamai field into 6 units:pyroxenitic Fe-rich(1-2 GPa) and Mg-rich(2-3 GPa) layers;middle with two levels of Gar-Sp pyroxenites at ~3 and 4-5 GPa;Gar-dunite-harzburgites ~4.5-6.5 GPa subjected to Ilm-Px vein metasomatism;and a Mg-rich dunite lower part.In the Anabar shield(Ary-Mastakh,Dyuken and Kuranakh fields) mantle lithosphere is composed of three large units divided into two parts:upper part with amphiboles and phlogopite;two levels of pyroxenites and eclogites at 3 and 4 GPa,and a lower part composed of refertilized dunites.Diagrams showing P-Fe~#Gar clusters for garnets and omphacites illustrate the differences between SCLM of these localities.Differences of Triassic SCLM from Devonian SCLM are in simple layering;abundance of Na-Cr-amphiboles and metasomatism in the upper SCLM part,thick pyroxenite-eclogite layer and lower part depletion,heated from SCLM base to 5.0 GPa.Kharamai mantle clinopyroxenes represent three geochemical types:(1) harzburgitic with inclined linear REE,HFSE troughs and elevated Th,U;(2) lherzolitic or pyroxenitic with round TRE patterns and decreasing incompatible elements;(3) eclogitic with Eu troughs,Pb peak and high LILE content.Calculated parental melts for garnets with humped REE patterns suggest dissolution of former Cpx and depression means Cpx and garnets extraction.Clinopyroxenes from Ary-Mastakh fields show less inclined REE patterns with HMREE troughs and an increase of incompatible elements.Clinopyroxenes from Kuranakh field show flatter spoon-like REE patterns and peaks in Ba,U,Pb and Sr,similar to those in ophiolitic harzburgites.The PT diagrams for the mantle sections show high temperature gradients in the uppermost SCLM accompanied by an increase of P-Fe~#Ol upward and slightly reduced thickness of the mantle keel of the Siberian craton,resulting from the influence of the Permian-Triassic superplume,but with no signs of delamination.