Lherzolite
Lherzolite is a type of ultramafic
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]
References
- ISBN 1-903544-20-3
- Blatt, Harvey and Robert J. Tracy, 1996, Petrology: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic, 2nd ed., Freeman, ISBN 0-7167-2438-3