Oxidation States of Fe in Constituent Minerals of a Spinel Lherzolite Xenolith from the Tariat Depression, Mongolia: The Significance of Fe3+ in Olivine

The oxidation states of Fe within olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, and spinel in a spinel lherzolite xenolith from the Tariat Depression, Mongolia were investigated using Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy to evaluate the redox condition of the upper mantle from which the Tariat spinel lherzolite xenolith was derived. The purity of separated minerals for the Mossbauer spectroscopic analysis was examined using X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Average Fo and Fe contents of olivine at the core part of the xenolith are 89.9(4) mol % and 0.195(3) atoms per formula unit, respectively. The Fe3+/Sigma Fe values of the olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, and spinel, determined by Mossbauer spectroscopic analysis, are 0.027(2), 0.15(1), 0.26(3), and 0.34(5), respectively. The Mossbauer spectrum of olivine consists of two doublets assigned to Fe2+ at the octahedral sites and one doublet, with I.S. of 0.40(2) mm/s and Q.S. of 0.69(3) mm/s assigned to Fe3+ at the octahedral site. Since the Tariat spinel lherzolite xenolith in this study shows no evidence of metasomatism or thermal alteration, the existence of a small amount of Fe3+ in olivine and the fairly high Fe3+ contents of clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and spinel imply that the upper mantle under the Tariat area was in a rather oxidized condition.