Thermal and compositional anomalies in a detailed xenolith-based lithospheric mantle profile of the Siberian craton and the origin of seismic mid-lithosphere discontinuities

The fine structure and thermal state of >200-km-thick cratonic lithosphere remain poorly explored because of insufficient sampling and uncertainties in pressure (P) and temperature (T) estimates. We report exceptionally detailed thermal and compositional profiles of the continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) in the Siberian craton based on petrographic, in situ chemical, and P-T data for 92 new garnet peridotite xenoliths from the Udachnaya kimberlite, as well as literature data. The thermal profile is complex, with samples indicating model conductive geotherms between 40 and 35 mW/m2 at -55-130 km, colder (35 mW/m2 geotherm) mantle from 140 to 190 km, and hotter layers at the CLM base (190-230 km) and at -135 km. The latter, previously unidentified, anomalous midlithospheric horizon has rocks up to 150 degrees C hotter than the 35 mW/m2 geotherm, that are rich in garnet and clinopyroxene, have low Mg#, and have melt-equilibrated rare earth element patterns. We posit that this horizon formed in a depth range where ascending melts stall (e.g., via loss of volatiles and redox change), heat wall-rock harzburgites, and transform them to lherzolites or wehrlites. This may explain some seismic midlithosphere discontinuities (MLDs) in cratons. By contrast, we found no rocks rich in metasomatic volatile-rich amphibole, phlogopite, or carbonate matching the MLD, nor layers composed of peridotites with distinct melt-extraction degrees. The CLM below 190 km contains both coarse and variably deformed rocks heated and reworked (Mg#Ol down to 0.86) by localized lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction.