Chemical Variations in Peridotite Xenoliths from Vitim, Siberia: Inferences for REE and Hf Behaviour in the Garnet-Facies Upper Mantle

Peridotite xenoliths in a Miocene picrite tuff from the Vitimvolcanic province east of Lake Baikal, Siberia, are samplesof the off-craton lithospheric mantle that span a depth rangefrom the spinel to garnet facies in a mainly fertile domain.Their major and trace element compositions show some scatter(unrelated to sampling or analytical problems), which is notconsistent with different degrees of partial melting or metasomatism.Some spinel peridotites and, to a lesser degree, garnet-bearingperidotites are depleted in heavy rare earth elements (HREE)relative to middle REE (MREE), whereas some garnet peridotitesare enriched in HREE relative to MREE, with Lu abundances muchhigher than in primitive mantle estimates. Clinopyroxenes fromseveral spinel peridotites have HREE-depleted patterns, whichare normally seen only in clinopyroxenes coexisting with garnet.Garnets in peridotites with similar modal and major elementcompositions have a broad range of Lu and Yb abundances. Overall,HREE are decoupled from MREE and Hf and are poorly correlatedwith partial melting indices. It appears that elements withhigh affinity to garnet were partially redistributed in theVitim peridotite series following partial melting, with feweffects for other elements. The Lu–Hf decoupling may disturbHf-isotope depletion ages and their correlations with meltingindices. KEY WORDS: garnet peridotite; lithospheric mantle; Lu–Hf isotope system; Siberia; trace elements