The Heven lava plateau in the Hövsgöl field of the South-Baikal igneous province formed in the Early–Middle Miocene between 20 and 15.5 Ma. It consists of Early Miocene hawaiites and trachybasalts and Middle Miocene basanites erupted, correspondingly, during two major events in its history. The Heven alkali-basaltic lavas are compositionally similar to their counterparts from other volcanic fields in the southern flank of the Baikal rift system and are richer in Ba, K, Pb, and Sr than oceanic island basalts (OIB). The basanitic, hawaiitic, and trachybasaltic magmas were generated at pressures from 25 to 15 kbar and at temperatures in the range from 1434 to 1358 ºC. The magma sources occurred at 74 to 41 km in asthenospheric and lithospheric mantle and were ~200 ºC hotter than the ambient lithospheric mantle in the surrounding areas and the continental geotherm. The crystallization history of dark-colored began with liquidus highly magnesian olivine and Cr-spinel, and then several other parageneses formed successively as pressures and temperatures decreased: Ol + Cpx and Ol + Cpx + TiMgt ± Pl phenocrysts and subphenocrysts, Cpx + TiMgt + Ilm + Pl microphenocrysts, and finally interstitial Ne + Kfs alkali aluminosilicates. There were two crystallization stages with different mineral chemistry trends. The chemistry of minerals changed as the rising magmas first reached the crust–mantle region and then moved to shallow depths, erupted, and solidified. The generation of the Heven hawaiite–trachybasalt and basanite magmas was controlled by the depth of the reservoirs and the melt fraction in garnet-bearing asthenospheric and lithospheric mantle associated with progressive and regressive dynamics of the lower heterogeneous mantle plume consisting of PREMA and EMI components.

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The paper presents new data on mineralogy, geochemistry, and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope systematics of Late Cenozoic eruption products of Uguumur and Bod-Uul volcanoes in the Tesiingol field of Northern Mongolia, with implications for the magma generation conditions, magma sources, and geodynamic causes of volcanism. The lavas and pyroclastics of the two volcanic centers are composed of basanite, phonotephrite, basaltic trachyandesite, and trachyandesite, which enclose spinel and garnet peridotite and garnet-bearing pyroxenite xenoliths; megacrysts of Na-sanidine, Ca-Na pyroxene, ilmenite, and almandine-grossular-pyrope garnets; and carbonate phases. The rocks are enriched in LILE and HFSE, show strongly fractioned REE spectra, and are relatively depleted in U and Th. The low contents of U and Th in Late Cenozoic volcanics from Northern and Central Mongolia represent the composition of a magma source. The presence of carbonate phases in subliquidus minerals and mantle rocks indicates that carbon-bearing fluids were important agents in metasomatism of subcontinental lithospheric mantle. The silicate-carbonate melts were apparently released from eclogitizied slabs during the Paleo-Asian and Mongol-Okhotsk subduction. The parent alkali-basaltic magma may be derived as a result from partial melting of Grt-bearing pyroxenite or eclogite-like material or carobantized peridotite. The sources of alkali-basaltic magmas from the Northern and Central Mongolia plot different isotope trends corresponding to two different provinces. The isotope signatures of megacrysts are similar to those of studied volcanic centers rocks. The P-T conditions inferred for the crystallization of pyroxene and garnet megacrysts correspond to a depth range from the Grt-Sp phase transition to the lower crust. Late Cenozoic volcanism in Northern and Central Mongolia may be a response to stress propagation and gravity instability in the mantle associated with the India-Asia collision.

The isotopic data showed that there are two stages distinguished in the Cenozoic history of the Darkhad depression volcanic activity, the Late Oligocene initial stage (~28.0–26.6 Ma) and the final Late Miocene – Early Pliocene stage (~5.8–4.2 Ma). It has been stated that the rocks of the initial stage are only represented by trachybasalts; however, among the final-stage basaltoids there are series of shield-volcano hawaite-basanite-phonotephrite rocks and compex trachybasaltic "valley" lava flows, the formation of which is the last stage in the territorial volcanic evolution. It has been shown that the initial-stage trachybasaltic andesites are characterized by their enrichment of TiO2, P2O5, Sr, Zn, Ga and low concentrations of Al2O3, MnO, CaO, Sc and HREE (La/Yb=27.2–30.2). Basaltoids of the final stage have a similar rare-element distribution and show an increase in the contents of TiO2, Al2O3, P2O5, LILE, HFSE, Th, U and in the degree of fractionation of REE (La/Yb from 12.2 to 20.9) towards the rocks alkalinity enhancement. Modeling of eclogite, pyroxenite and peridotite melting processes in the La/Yb – Sm/Yb system shows that trachybasaltic andesite melts could be formed at ~7–8 % melting of eclogitic matter or at ~10–11 % melting of Grt-containing pyroxenites, with trachybasalt formed at ~3 % melting of Grt-containing peridotites. The composition distribution of rocks in coordinates (Mg# – Fe/Mn) indicates that the parental magmas are the initial-stage trachybasaltic andesite magmas as well as the Early Pliocene trachybasaltic "valley" lava flows. Sr, Nd, Pb isotope characteristics of the Darkhad depression basaltoids show significant shift of isotopic ratios in time towards the relatively enriched mantle as compared with the depleted MORB mantle. The initial formation of trachybasaltic andesite melts occurred in the Late Oligicene at the pre-rift stage of the territory development involving metasomatized mantle matter, with the pyroxenite or eclogite component contained in the magma formation source. The origin of trachybasalt magmas of the final stage is associated with the processes of decompression melting of peridotites in a weakly metasomatized lithospheric mantle at the rift stage of the Darkhad structure development.

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