Origin of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle

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I propose a research program involving the petrology and geochemistry (including stable isotope investigations and age dating) of mantle xenoliths from the Navajo Volcanic Field on the Colorado Plateau. These samples have characteristics that are intermediate between mantle materials known from xenoliths suites brought to the surface by kimberlites and from slivers of high-pressure metamorphosed oceanic lithosphere emplaced in fossil subductions zones at active continental margins or in suture zones. Through a study of the Navajo xenoliths we will advance our understanding of the processes that led to the formation of the deep mantle roots of continents. Furthermore, these data will bear on the long-standing question of how and when the Colorado Plateau rose to its present elevation, as well as what causes uplift of continental plateaux in general.