MANTLE FASCINATIONS
The upper mantle of our planet stretches between the Moho and the upper limit of transition zone at 410 km. It consists of lithospheric mantle, which is rigid and constitutes the sub-Moho part of lithospheric plates, and of asthenosphere, which is ductile and convecting. Fragments of lithospheric mantle – xenoliths in alkaline volcanic rocks, orogenic peridotites, and ophiolites – transported to the surface by various mechanisms – provide direct rock samples that can be studied by methods used in Earth sciences.
Large part of my professional career was focused on of mantle xenolith research. Before, I worked with igneous and metamorphic rocks forming the Polish part of the European Variscides, including a two-years episode in experimental petrology of granitic systems. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that my major fascination in recent years has been how the evolution of the mantle root of the Variscan orogen relates to that of the overlying crust.
This session on the occasion my 70th birthday is organized by the Petrology Group of the Polish Mineralogical Society, to which I am deeply grateful. I started my professional career in Earth sciences in 1981, and during last 45 years I was lucky to meet many fantastic scientists, all good and wise people, and many brilliant students, who now are professionals conducting high-quality research. Some of these colleagues cooperated with me in recent years in xenolith studies. They generously accepted my invitation to this session, which is open to all mantle researchers wishing to showcase and discuss their data, ideas and mantle fascinations. Welcome!
Jacek Puziewicz
Honorary Member of the Mineralogical Society of Poland
The invited talks for this anniversary session:
- Jacek Puziewicz - Mantle root of the European Variscides – the xenolith story
- Sonja Aulbach - Volatiles in the Variscan orogenic cycle as told by orogenic peridotites and mantle xenoliths
- Stanisław Mazur - Tectonic architecture and lithospheric inheritance of the European Variscan Belt
- Theodoros Ntaflos - Constraints on the evolution of the lithospheric mantle underneath Patagonia, Argentina
- Károly Hidas & José Alberto Padrón-Navarta: Hydrous phases, fluids and melts as controls on upper mantle deformation: insights from peridotite microstructures
- Mary-Alix Kaczmarek - From ocean-continent transition to transform faults: The relationships between deformation and melt percolation