Melt extraction and enrichment processes in the New Caledonia lherzolites: evidence from geochemical and Sr-Nd isotope data

In this study, a comprehensive geochemical data set (major, trace elements and Sr-Nd isotopes) is used to constrain the mantle evolution of the Iherzolites and their relationships with the basalts from the Poya Terrane, which tectonically underlies the mantle rocks. The majority, of the lherzolites are low-strain porphyroclastic tectonites. They likely record an asthenospheric origin followed by re-equilibration at lithospheric conditions, as supported by geothermometric estimates (T = 1100-940 degrees C and 920-890 degrees C for porphyroclastic and neoblastic spinel-facies assemblages, respectively). Olivine composition (Fo = 88.5-90.0 mol%), spinel Cr# ([molar 100 center dot Cr/(Cr + Al)] = 13-17) and relatively high amounts (7-8 vol%) of Al2O3- and Na2O-rich clinopyroxene (up to 0.5 and 6.5 wt.%, respectively) indicate a moderately depleted geochemical signature for the spinel lherzolites. Bulk rock and clinopyroxene rare earth elements (REE) patterns display a typical abyssal-type signature, i.e. steeply plunging LREE accompanied by nearly flat HREE to MREE. Clinopyroxene REE compositions of the spinel lherzolites may be reproduced by small amounts of fractional melting of a garnet lherzolite precursor (similar to 4%), followed by 4%-5% melting in the spinel peridotite field. The plagioclase lherzolites show melt impregnation microstructures, Cr- and Ti-rich spinels and incompatible trace element enrichments (REE, Ti, Y, and Zr) in bulk rocks and clinopyroxenes. Impregnation modelling for these elements suggests that the plagioclase lherzolites originated from residual spinel lherzolites by entrapment of highly depleted (non-aggregated) MORB melt fractions in the shallow oceanic lithosphere. Nd isotope compositions of the investigated peridotites are consistent with derivation from an asthenospheric mantle source that experienced a recent MORB-producing depletion event. This evolution was most likely accomplished in a spreading ridge. However, geochemical trace element modelling and Nd isotopes do not support a genetic mantle-crust link between the lherzolites and enriched-MOR-type basalts from the Poya Terrane.