Abstract:
The Earth's lithosphere can focus basaltic magmatism along pre-existing weakness zones or discontinuities. However, apart from the influence on the geochemistry of magmas emplaced in subduction tectonic settings (mantle wedge metasomatism related to dehydration of the subducting plates) the role of lithosphere as a magma source for intra-plate (both oceanic and continental), continental margin, and mid-ocean ridge magmatism is not yet fully understood. In many cases intra-plate magmatism has been explained with the existence of deep thermal anomalies (mantle plumes) whose origin has been placed near the upper–lower mantle transition zone (660 km discontinuity) or even deeper, near the mantle–core boundary (∼2900 km). Also in many continental flood basalt provinces (mostly initiated at craton margins) an active role for mantle plumes has been invoked to explain the high melt productivity. In these cases, no active role for melt production has been attributed to the lithospheric mantle. Potential contaminations of asthenospheric or even deeper mantle melts are often considered the only influence of the lithosphere (both crust and mantle) in basalt petrogenesis. In other cases, an active role of the lithospheric mantle has been proposed: the thermal anomalies related to the presence of mantle plumes would trigger partial melting in the lithospheric mantle. At present there is no unequivocal geochemical tracer that reflects the relative role of lithosphere and upper/lower mantle as magma sources. In this paper another role of the lithosphere is proposed.
