Abstract
We report new data on the geochemical evolution, metasomatic and deformation processes in the lower layers of cratonic lithospheric mantle based on a detailed study of extraordinarily fresh and large deformed peridotite xenoliths from the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe, Siberia. Based on our T-P estimates, the deformed peridotites are localized in a depth range of 170 to 220 km near the base of cratonic mantle. The degree of deformation is not correlated with the depth and equilibration temperatures of the xenoliths. The deformed peridotites are depleted in magmaphile major elements indicating their residual nature, but are enriched in incompatible trace elements, Fe and K. The deformed peridotites experienced a complex evolution, i.e., they were formed initially as high-degree melt extraction residues and later were subjected to three main stages of metasomatic modification. (1) An old, mostly cryptic metasomatism by melt/fluid of carbonatitic composition, which formed garnets with sinusoidal REE patterns (Smn/Ern > 1). (2) Silicate metasomatism, which led to the most significant changes in mineralogical and chemical composition of the deformed peridotites. (3) Fe and Ti metasomatism just before the entrainment of the deformed rocks into kimberlite magma. Enrichment of the peridotites in large-ion lithophile elements (K, Rb, Ba) is related to the formation of kelyphitic rims around garnet. The nature of the metasomatic agent of silicate metasomatism was evaluated from mass-balance of measured and calculated whole-rock compositions, ratios of highly incompatible elements (D < 0.1) and fractional crystallization modeling. All this evidence indicates that the agent of silicate metasomatism had a composition intermediate between that of kimberlites and HIMU OIB. The metasomatic processes responsible for the formation of deformed peridotites and precipitation of megacryst suites cannot be widespread at the base of the cratonic mantle. Rather, they are local features only existing in the cratonic mantle below kimberlite fields and localized along the metasomatic vein system.