Uppermost mantle anisotropy beneath the southern Laurentian margin: Evidence from Knippa peridotite xenoliths, Texas

Abstract

Peridotite xenoliths from southern Texas consist of spinel lherzolite, harzburgite and minor dunite. Based on phase relations and temperature of equilibration, Knippa xenoliths come from the uppermost mantle, 40-70 km deep. Knippa xenoliths provide rare snapshots of upper mantle processes and compositions beneath south-central Laurentia. They preserve olivine a-axis fiber fabrics with a strong concentration of [100] and girdles of [010] and [001]. Assuming a lithospheric mantle having a horizontal flow direction parallel to fast directions, the mantle lithospheric fabric revealed by the xenoliths mostly explains the magnitude of observed shear-wave splitting observed along the southern margin of the Laurentian craton. © 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.