LherzoliteLherzolite at Etang de Lers, Ariège, FranceGarnet lherzolite, a xenolith from a kimberlite pipe, Kimberley, South Africa. Field of view ~1.6 cm across. Purplish red = pyrope garnet. Bright green = chromian diopside. Dark greenish-black = orthopyroxene. Olive-green = olivine.
Lherzolite is a type of ultramafic igneous rock. It is a coarse-grained rock consisting of 40 to 90% olivine along with significant orthopyroxene and lesser amounts of calcic chromium-rich clinopyroxene. Minor minerals include chromium and aluminium spinels and garnets. Plagioclase can occur in lherzolites and other peridotites that crystallize at relatively shallow depths (20 – 30 km). At greater depth plagioclase is unstable and is replaced by spinel. At approximately 90 km depth, pyrope garnet becomes the stable aluminous phase. Garnet lherzolite is a major constituent of the Earth's upper mantle (extending to ~300 km depth). Lherzolite is known from the lower ultramafic part of ophiolite complexes (although harzburgite is more common in this setting), from alpine-type peridotite massifs, from fracture zones adjacent to mid-oceanic ridges, and as xenoliths in kimberlite pipes and alkali basalts. Partial melting of spinel lherzolite is one of the primary sources of basaltic magma.
The name is derived from its type locality, the Lherz Massif (an alpine peridotite complex, also known as orogenic lherzolite complex), at Étang de Lers, near Massat in the French Pyrenees; Étang de Lherz is the archaic spelling of this location.
The Lherz massif also contains harzburgite and dunite, as well as layers of spinel pyroxenite, garnet pyroxenite, and hornblendite. The layers represent partial melts extracted from the host peridotite during decompression in the mantle long before emplacement into the crust.
The Lherz massif is unique because it has been emplaced into Paleozoic carbonates (limestones and dolomites), which form mixed breccias of limestone-lherzolite around the margins of the massif.
The Moon's lower mantle may be composed of lherzolite.[1]
^Vita-Finzi, Claudio, 2005, Planetary Geology, Harpenden, Terra Publishing, page 31, ISBN 1-903544-20-3
Lherzolite is a type of ultramafic igneous rock. It is a coarse-grained rock consisting of 40 to 90% olivine along with significant orthopyroxene and lesser...
extraction of partial melts from the more pyroxene-rich peridotite called lherzolite. The molten magma extracted from harzburgite may then erupt on the surface...
layer just above the dunite layer. Lherzolite: intermediate content of clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene Lherzolite is thought to make up much of the upper...
and spinel lherzolite in basaltic lava flows are one example. Kimberlites contain, in addition to diamond xenocrysts, fragments of lherzolites of varying...
eruption samples them. Host rocks in a mantle keel include harzburgite and lherzolite, two type of peridotite. The most dominant rock type in the upper mantle...
"Solidus and liquidus temperatures and mineralogies for anhydrous garnet-lherzolite to 15 GPa". Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. 32 (2). Elsevier...
method of dunite formation in mantle sections is by interaction between lherzolite or harzburgite and percolating silicate melts, which dissolve orthopyroxene...
(northwestern India) and elsewhere in the western Deccan and contain spinel lherzolite and pyroxenite constituents. While the Deccan traps have been categorized...
Latite – Type of volcanic rock – A silica-undersaturated form of andesite Lherzolite – an ultramafic and ultrabasic rock that is composed of olivine and pyroxenePages...
interest. Most of the mantle xenoliths at Kilbourne Hole are composed of lherzolite, a rock composed mostly of olivine and pyroxene. The olivine has a distinctive...
derived from decompression melting of the asthenosphere, with garnet and lherzolite as precursors. Dunite xenoliths are found within the erupted basalts....
settled out from a magma chamber. Tectonized peridotite: harzburgite/lherzolite-rich mantle rock. A Geological Society of America Penrose Conference on...
consequences for the water storage capacity, and the solidus temperature of the lherzolite of the upper mantle. It is used as a gemstone. Anyolite Warr, L.N. (2021)...
and green pyroxenite bands at the bottom represent the melt, brownish lherzolite bands at the top the solid phase. Near Midsund, Norway, 1 euro coin for...
garnet-bearing) inclusions in diamond contain less Cr2O3 whereas peridotite (lherzolite and harzburgite) garnet inclusions have less CaO. Eclogite and peridotite...
times, hence the Greek name for the island, Topazios. Layers of spinel-lherzolites with anhydrous Al-diopside pyroxenites and hydrous Cr-diopside pyroxenites...
cinder cones throughout the volcanic province, several of which comprise lherzolite magma. Felsic magmas from more viscous eruptions create the massive central...
minerals in mafic and ultramafic rocks, such as dunite, harzburgite, or lherzolite. These are rocks low in silica and composed mostly of olivine ((Mg2+,...
is an upper mantle peridotite body in the French Pyrenees. The mineral lherzolite takes its name from this rock body. McPherson, E.; Thirlwall, M. F.; Parkinson...
magnesium-rich minerals within a marble formation or with garnet-rich lherzolites from deep within the Earth's crust. Thus, finding edenite in the field...
penetrated by igneous rocks described as ophites (varieties of diabase) and lherzolites (peridotites). At the contacts scapolite occurs in a great number of...
occasionally melilite and sodalite. The rocks contain xenoliths of harzburgite, lherzolite and peridotite. Sulfur occurs within the crater of the scoria cone, as...
sheet. These have been partly serpentinized. The variety of peridotite is lherzolite. These were intruded at a pressure of 1 gigapascal (GPa). Beneath the...
phenocrysts of olivine. Xenoliths of lherzolite are abundant and more rarely of White Tank monzogranite. The lherzolite nodules are interpreted as representing...
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