Melt evolution beneath a rifted craton edge: 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and Sr–Nd–Hf–Pb isotope systematics of primitive alkaline basalts and lamprophyres from the SW Baltic Shield

A new high-precision Ar-40/Ar-39 anorthoclase feldspar age of 176.7 +/- 0.5 Ma (2-sigma) reveals that small-volume alkaline basaltic magmatism occurred at the rifted SW margin of the Baltic Shield in Scania (southern Sweden), at a time of global plate reorganization associated with the inception of Pangea supercontinent break-up. Our combined elemental and Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb isotope dataset for representative basanite and nephelinite samples (>8 wt.% MgO) from 16 subvolcanic necks of the 30 by 40 km large Jurassic volcanic field suggests magma derivation from a moderately depleted mantle source (Sr-87/(86)Sri = 0.7034-0.7048; epsilon Nd-i = +4.4 to +5.2; epsilon Hf-i = +4.7 to +8.1; Pb-206/(204)Pbi = 18.8-19.5). The mafic alkaline melts segregated from mixed peridotite-pyroxenite mantle with a potential temperature of similar to 1400 degrees C at 2.7-4.2 GPa (similar to 90-120 km depths), which places ultimate melt generation within the convecting upper mantle, provided that the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath the southern Baltic Shield margin was at <= 100 km depth during Mesozoic-Cenozoic rifting. Isotopic shifts and incompatible element enrichment relative to Depleted Mantle reflect involvement of at least 20% recycled oceanic lithosphere component (i.e., pyroxenite) with some minor continent-derived sediment during partial melting of well-stirred convecting upper mantle peridotite. Although pargasitic amphibole-rich metasomatized lithospheric mantle is excluded as the main source of the Jurassic magmas from Scania, hydrous ultramafic veins (i.e., hornblendite) may have caused subtle modifications to the compositions of passing sublithospheric melts. For example, modeling suggests that the more radiogenic Hf (epsilon Hf-i = +6.3 to +8.1) and Pb (Pb-206/Pb-204(i) = 18.9-19.5) isotopic compositions of the more sodic and H2O-rich nephelinites, compared with relatively homogenous basanites (epsilon Hf-i = +4.7 to +6.1; Pb-206/Pb-204(i) = 18.8-18.9), originate from minor interactions between rising asthenospheric melts and amphibole-rich metasomatic components. The metasomatic components were likely introduced to the lithospheric mantle beneath the southern Baltic Shield margin during extensive Permo-Carboniferous magmatic activity, a scenario that is supported by the geochemical and isotope compositions of ca. 286 Ma lamprophyres from Scania (Sr-87/(86)Sri = 0.7040-0.7054; epsilon Nd-i = +2.0 to +3.1; epsilon Hf-i = +6.1 to +9.0; Pb-206/(204)Pbi = 17.8-18.2). Strong variations in lithosphere thickness and thermal structure across the southern Baltic Shield margin may have caused transient small-scale mantle convection. This resulted in relatively fast and focused upwellings and lateral flow beneath the thinned lithosphere, where mafic alkaline magmas formed by low degrees of decompression melting of sublithospheric mantle. Such a geodynamic scenario would allow for enriched recycled components with low melting points to be preferentially sampled from the more depleted and refractory convecting upper mantle when channeled along a destabilizing craton edge. Similar to the 'lid effect' in oceanic island volcanic provinces, lithospheric architecture may exert strong control on the mantle melting regime, and thus offer a simple explanation for the geochemical resemblance of continental and oceanic intraplate mafic alkaline magmas of high Na/K affinity