Petrofabric and seismic properties of lithospheric mantle xenoliths from the Calatrava volcanic field (Central Spain)

Abstract The microstructural and petrofabric study of peridotite xenoliths from the El Aprisco (Neogene Calatrava Volcanic Field) has provided new information on deformation mechanisms, ambient conditions and seismic properties of the central Iberian subcontinental mantle. Olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, amphibole and spinel constitute the mineral assemblage in equilibrium. Their microstructure indicates that they accommodated crystal-plastic deformation under high water fugacity conditions. Crystallographic preferred orientation patterns of key minerals were determined with the EBSD technique. The xenoliths exhibit B, C and A olivine fabrics. B-type fabrics, involving the (010)[001] slip system, may develop in domains where deformation occurs under comparatively lower temperature, higher water-content and faster strain rates. They are interpreted here as the result of deformation in a suprasubduction mantle setting triggered by changing conditions imposed by a cooler subducting slab that incorporated fluids into the system. Xenoliths with olivine C-type fabrics involve activation of the dominant (100)[001] slip system, denote intracrystalline slip at higher temperatures and water-contents. They are here interpreted to sample lithospheric mantle domains where the impact of those new conditions was not so strong. Finally, the A-type fabrics, characteristic of the (010)[100] slip system, are frequent in the mantle under moderate to high temperature. These fabrics are considered here as characteristic of the mantle prior to subduction. The olivine fabrics constrain heterogeneous seismic properties. Propagation orientation of P waves (8.27–8.51 km/s) coincides with olivine [100] axis concentrations, whereas the fastest S1 waves (5.13–5.22 km/s) propagate parallel to [010] axis minima. The maximum shear wave birefringence (V S1 –V S2  = 0.17–0.37 km/s) is close to the direction of the macroscopic lineation. Heterogeneity of calculated seismic properties would concur with preservation of fossil flow perturbations, reworking and metasomatism in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle of central Spain, likely related to changes in the ambient conditions close to paleosubductions.