Evolution of the lithospheric mantle beneath the Marsabit volcanic field (Northern Kenya): Constraints from textural, P-T and geochemical studies on xenoliths

Abstract

Xenoliths hosted by Quaternary basanites and alkali basalts from Marsabit (northern Kenya) represent fragments of Proterozoic lithospheric mantle thinned and chemically modified during rifting in the Mesozoic (Anza Graben) and in the Tertiary-Quaternary (Kenya rift). Four types of peridotite xenoliths were investigated to constrain the thermal and chemical evolution of the lithospheric mantle. Group I, III and IV peridotites provide evidence of a cold, highly deformed and heterogeneous upper mantle. Textures, thermobarometry and trace element characteristics of minerals indicate that low temperatures in the spinel stability field (∼750-800° C at < 1.5 GPa) were attained by decompression and cooling from initially high pressures and temperatures in the garnet stability field (970-1080° C at 2.3-2.9 GPa). Cooling, decompression and penetrative deformation are consistent with lithospheric thinning, probably related to the development of the Mesozoic to Paleogene Anza Graben. Re-equilibrated and recrystallized peridotite xenoliths (Group II) record heating (from ∼800° C to ∼1100° C). Mineral trace element signatures indicate enrichment by mafic silicate melts, parental to the Quaternary host basanites and alkali basalts. Relationships between mineral textures, P-T conditions of equilibration, and geochemistry can be explained by metasomatism and heating of the lithosphere related to the formation of the Kenya rift, above a zone of hot upwelling mantle. © 2006 Oxford University Press.