Xenolith-based thermal and compositional lithospheric mantle profile of the central Siberian craton

Many aspects of structure and thermal state of >200 km thick cratonic lithospheric mantle (CLM) remain unclear because of insufficient sampling and uncertainties of pressure (P) and temperature (T) estimates. An exceptionally detailed record of equilibration temperature and composition for the central Siberian craton in the 60–230 km depth range was obtained using new and published petrographic and in-situ chemical data for ~200 garnet peridotite xenoliths from the Udachnaya kimberlite. The thermal profile is complex with samples between 35 and 40 mW/m² model conductive geotherms as well as hotter layers in the middle and at the base (190–230 km) of the CLM. A previously unknown mid-lithospheric zone includes rocks up to 150° hotter than ambient geotherm, with high modal garnet and cpx, low-Mg# and melt-equilibrated REE patterns. We posit that hot domains with enriched compositions may form at depths where ascending melts stall (e.g., due to loss of volatiles and/or redox change) and react with wall-rock harzburgites. By contrast, we find no rocks rich in volatile-rich metasomatic amphibole, mica or carbonate, nor layers composed of peridotites with distinct melt-extraction degrees. The CLM base contains both coarse and variably deformed rocks heated and re-worked (Mg#_Ol down to 0.86) by localized interaction with asthenospheric melts.