OXIDATION-STATE OF MANTLE XENOLITHS FROM BRITISH-COLUMBIA, CANADA

Mössbauer spectra for 17 spinels separated from mantle xenoliths from six different eruptive centers in southern British Columbia, Canada were measured in an effort to accurately determine their Fe3+/total Fe ratios, and to examine lateral and vertical variations in oxygen fugacities (fo2's) calculated for these samples using published thermobarometric methods. Spectra acquired at 298 and 77 K suggest that both Fe2+ and Fe3+ are tetrahedrally coordinated in lherzolite spinels from this alkaline province. Calculated fo2's for spinel lherzolites from British Columbia range from about 0.5 to 1.5 log units below the fayalite-magnetite-quartz (FMQ) oxygen buffer at 15 kbar using the thermobarometric method of O'Neill and Wall. These fo2's are on average more reducing than those reported for the upper mantle beneath the Massif Central and Japanese Arc and fall within the range for fresh MORB glasses and for lherzolite xenoliths from the southwestern United States and Mongolia. Significant variations in fo2 between samples from different eruptive centers with varying ages are absent, indicating that the oxidation state of the upper mantle was not affected by Cenozoic magmatism within this alkaline province. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.