Mantle processes during ocean formation：Petrologic records in peridotites from the Alpine－Apennine ophiolites

Mantle peridotites were early exposed at the sea-floor of the Jurassic Tethys derived from the subcontinental mantle of the Europe-Adria system. During continental rifting and oceanic spreading, these lithospheric peri-dotites were percolated via diffuse reactive porous flowby melt fractions produced by near-fractional melting of the upwelling asthenosphere. Ascending melts inter-acted with the lower lithosphere, dissolving pyroxenes and precipitating olivine, and crystallized at shallower levels in the mantle column causing melt impregnation.Subsequent focused porous flow formed replacive dunitechannels, cutting the impregnated oeridotites, which were conduits for upward migration of MORB-type liq-uids. Melt migration produced depletionlrefertilization and significant heating of the percolatedlimpregnated mantle, i.e the thermochemical erosion of the litho-sphere. Impregnated and thermally modified lithos-pheric mantle was cooled by conductive heat loss dur-ing progressive lithosphere thinning and was intrudeaby MORB magmas, which formed Mg-rich and Fe-richgabbroic dykes and bodies. Alpine-Apennine ophiolitic peridotites record the deep-seated migration of melts which changed their compositions and dynamics during the rift evolution. The thermochemical erosion of the lithospheric mantle by the ascending asthenospheric melts, which induces significant compositional and rhe-ological changes in the lower lithosphere, is a major process in the evolution of the continent-ocean transi-tion towards a slow spreading oceanic system.