Evolution of LILE-enriched small melt fractions in the lithospheric mantle: a case study from the East African Rift

Spinel-peridotite xenoliths from Me (East African Rift, Sidamo region, SE Ethiopia) show variable degrees of recrystallization coupled with trace-element variations. The less recrystallized samples (deformed xenoliths) consist of apatite-bearing porphyroclastic peridotites. They are strongly enriched in LILE (Ba, Th, U, Sr and LREE), with negative anomalies of the HFSE (Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf and Ti). The most recrystallized samples (granular xenoliths) consist of apatite-free peridotites with coarse-grained, granular textures. These samples are depleted or only slightly enriched in LILE and display no significant HFSE anomaly. We suggest that the inverse relationship between recrystallization and trace-element enrichment results from km-scale variation in volume and composition of melts pervasively infiltrated in the lithosphere. The deformed xenoliths record interaction with LILE-enriched small melt fractions, at low melt/rock ratio, while the granular xenoliths were extensively re-equilibrated with a higher fraction of basaltic melt, at higher melt/rock ratio. With a numerical simulation of reactive porous flow at the transition between adiabatic and conductive geotherms in the mantle, it is shown that these two processes were possibly coeval and associated with thermo-mechanical erosion of the lower lithosphere above a mantle plume. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.