Platinum-group elements and rhenium in mantle xenoliths from the East Sayan volcanic field (Siberia, Russia): evaluation of melt extraction and refertilization processes in lithospheric mantle of the Tuva-Mongolian massif
We determined the concentrations of platinum-group elements (PGE) and rhenium in granular spinel lherzolites entrained as xenoliths in the Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the East Sayan within the Sarkhoi palaeo-arc block of the Tuva-Mongolian massif. Major element, PGE and rhenium variations in the East Sayan xenoliths can be explained by impregnation of up to 15% of arc-type melt into initially depleted mantle harzburgite. Such a refertilization process probably took place in the Middle Neoproterozoic, when the Tuva-Mongolian massif was in a subduction environment. East Sayan xenoliths show close similarities to Vitim xenoliths, whose host basalts erupted within an off-cratonic crustal block. Both East Sayan and Vitim xenoliths are different from cratonic and circum-cratonic peridotite xenoliths of worldwide localities.