MODEL FOR UPPER MANTLE BELOW MALAITA, SOLOMON-ISLANDS, DEDUCED FROM CHEMISTRY OF LHERZOLITE AND MEGACRYST MINERALS

Clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and garnet megacrysts show consistent increase of Na and Ti, and decrease of Cr, with increasing Fe/Mg. Three groups of clinopyroxenes occur with increasing Fe/Mg: subcalcic diopside, lamellar intergrowth with ilmenite, and augite. Chemical relationships indicate simultaneous crystallization of garnet, orthopyroxene and sub-calcic diopside megacrysts, and pyroxene thermometry-barometry indicates a trend from 29 kb-1,230 ° C to 25 kb-1,080 ° C as crystallization proceeded to higher Fe/Mg. Ilmenite-pyroxene thermometry suggests a mean of 965 ° C for crystallization of the intergrowths, but calibration depends on crystal-chemical assumptions. Lherzolite assemblages fall into three groups: two garnet-bearing types which equilibrated at 31 kb-1,150 ° C and 22 kb-900 ° C, and a type bearing Al-rich spinel which probably crystallized below 20 kb. The minerals from the lherzolites have lower Fe/Mg than the megacrysts. The simplest model involves: (i) metamorphic equilibration of lherzolitic rocks to the local geotherm, (ii) local melting of lherzolite at P > 30 kb, (iii) sequential crystallization of megacrysts as the magma rose intermittently, (iv) generation of alnöitic magma at P > 32 kb, and (v) eruption to surface with transport of megacrysts and lherzolitic xenoliths. Garnet, olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene in these Malaita xenoliths have lower Na, Ti, and P relative to their equivalents from southern African kimberlites. Only clinopyroxene contains K (up to 270 ppmw), and no Na was found in olivine. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.