Metasomatic control of water contents in the Kaapvaal cratonic mantle

Water and trace element contents were measured by FTIR and laser ablation-ICPMS on minerals from peridotite xenoliths in kimberlites of the Kaapvaal craton from Finsch, Kimberley, Jagersfontein (South Africa), Letseng-La-Terae, and Liqhobong (Lesotho) mines. The peridotites record a wide range of pressure, temperature, oxygen fugacity, and metasomatic events. Correlations between water content or OH vibration bands with major, minor and trace elements in pyroxene and garnet precludes disturbance during xenolith entrainment by the host kimberlite magma and indicate preservation of mantle water contents. Clinopyroxene water contents (150-400 ppm H2O, by weight) correlate with those of orthopyroxene (40-250 ppm). Olivines (Peslier et al., 2008, 2010) and garnets have 0-86 and 0-20 ppm H2O, respectively. Relations in individual xenolith suites between the amount of water and that of incompatible elements Ti, Na, Fe3+ and rare earths in minerals suggests that metasomatism by oxidizing melts controls the water content of olivine, pyroxene and garnet. At pressures <= 5.5 GPa, hydrous, alkaline, siliceous fluids or melts metasomatized Liqhobong and Kimberley peridotites, producing high water contents in their olivine, pyroxenes and garnet. At higher pressures, the percolation of ultramafic melts reacting with peridotite resulted in co-variation of Ca, Ti and water at the edge of garnets at Jagersfontein, and the overall crystallization of garnet with lower water contents than those in the original peridotites. The upward migration of these ultramafic melts through the lithospheric mantle also increased the water content of olivines with decreasing pressure at Finsch Mine. H2O/Ce ratios of melts in equilibrium with Kaapvaal peridotites range from 100 to 20,000 and the larger values may indicate metasomatism in subduction zone settings. Metasomatic events in Kaapvaal peridotites are thought to have occurred from the Archean to the Mesozoic. However, circumstantial evidence suggest that the metasomatic events responsible for setting the water contents may date from the Archean at Kimberley and from the Proterozoic at Jagersfontein. Combined water with Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd isotopic data at Finsch (Lazarov et al., in press-a) and with Ar-Ar phlogopite ages at Liqhobong (Hopp et al., 2008) indicates that water addition by metasomatic melts occurred in the Proterozoic. Water contents of mantle minerals in Kaapvaal xenoliths measured here have been preserved since that time and can consequently be used in modelling viscosity and longevity of cratonic roots since at least the mid-Proterozoic. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.