Philip T. Leat

The Chon Aike province of Patagonia and related rocks in West Antarctica: A silicic large igneous province

The field occurrence, age, classification and geochemistry of the Mesozoic volcanic rocks of Patagonia and West Antarctica are reviewed, using published and new information. Dominated by rhyolitic ignimbrites, which form a bimodal association with minor mafic and intermediate lavas, these constitute one of the largest silicic igneous provinces known, equivalent in size to many mafic LIPs. Diachronism is recognized between the Early–Middle Jurassic volcanism of eastern Patagonia (Marifil and Chon Aike formations) and the Middle Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous volcanism of the Andean Cordillera (El Quemado, Ibanez and Tobifera formations). This is accompanied by a change in geochemical characteristics, from relatively high-Zr and -Nb types in the east to subalkaline arc-related rocks in the west, although the predominance of rhyolites remains a constant factor. All of the associated mafic rocks are well fractionated compared to direct mantle derivatives. Petrogenetic models favour partial melting of immature lower crust as a result of the intrusion of basaltic magmas, possibly with some hybridisation of the liquids and subsequent fractionation by crystal settling or solidification and remelting. The formation of large amounts of intracrustal silicic melt acted as a density barrier against the further rise of mafic magmas, which are thus rare in the province.

Geochemistry of bimodal basalt-subalkaline/peralkaline rhyolite provinces within the Southern British Caledonides

Bimodal associations of basalt and rhyolite of Upper Ordovician age which were erupted in a submarine environment occur within the Caledonian orogenic belt of South Britain at Parys Mountain (Anglesey), in Snowdonia (North Wales) and at Avoca (SE Ireland). The volcanic rocks have experienced hydrothermal alteration and low-grade metamorphism, and therefore immobile elements (e.g. Ti, Zr, Nb, Y) have been used to identify the original geochemical characteristics. The basalts have characters transitional between volcanic ‘arc’ and ‘within plate’ types consistent with eruption on an extensional part of an active continental margin. Two groups of rhyolites have been identified. A low-Zr group (Zr<500ppm), represented at all three locations, is interpreted as originally of high-K, subalkaline type. A high-Zr group (Zr>500ppm), represented at Snowdonia and Avoca, is interpreted as originally being peralkaline in composition; their high Zr/Nb ratios (>10) are typical of peralkaline rhyolites erupted above subduction zones. The bimodal nature of the associations and the peralkaline character of some rhyolites indicates magma production in a complex tectonic setting, transitional between an active continental margin/island arc and an extensional environment. Associated sulphide mineralization is volcanogenic and probably syn-sedimentary. High-level, rhyolitic magma chambers are thought to have driven convection of the hydrothermal fluids from which the sulphides precipitated.

Silicic volcanism: An undervalued component of large igneous provinces and volcanic rifted margins

Silicic volcanic rocks are associated with most, if not all, continental ×ood basalt provinces and volcanic rifted margins, where they can form substantial parts of the eruptive stratigraphy and have eruptive volumes >10 4 km 3 . Poor preservation of silicic volcanic rocks following kilometer-scale uplift and denudation of the volcanic rifted margins, however, can result in only deeper level structural features being exposed (i.e., dike swarms, major intrusions, and deeply subsided intracaldera µlls; e.g., North Atlantic igneous province). The role of silicic magmatism in the evolution of a large igneous province and rifted margin may therefore be largely overlooked. There are silicic-dominated igneous provinces with eruptive volumes comparable to those of maµc large igneous provinces ( >10 6 km 3 ), but that have low proportions of basalt expressed at the surface. Some silicic large igneous provinces are associated with intraplate magmatism and continental breakup (e.g., Jurassic Chon Aike province of South America, Early Cretaceous eastern Australian margin), whereas others are tectonically and geochemically associated with backarc environments (e.g., Sierra Madre Occidental). Silicic volcanic rocks formed in these two environments are similar in terms of total eruptive volumes, dominant l ithologies, and rhyolite geochemistry, but show fundamental differences in tectonic setting and basalt geochemistry. Large-volume ignimbrites are the dominant silicic volcanic rock type of continental flood basalt and silicic large igneous provinces. Individual silicic eruptive units can have thicknesses, areal extents, and volumes that are comparable to, or exceed, in

Terrane Processes at the Margins of Gondwana

The process of terrane accretion is vital to the understanding of the formation of continental crust. Accretionary orogens affect over half of the globe and have a distinctively different evolution to Wilson-type orogens. It is increasingly evident that accretionary orogenesis has played a significant role in the formation of the continents. The Pacific-margin of Gondwana preserves a major orogenic belt, termed here the ‘Australides’, which was an active site of terrane accretion from Neoproterozoic to Late Mesozoic times, and comparable in scale to the Rockies from Mexico to Alaska, or the Variscan-Appalachian orogeny. The New Zealand sector of this orogenic belt was one of the birthplaces of terrane theory and the Australide orogeny overall continues to be an important testing ground for terrane studies. This volume summarizes the history and principles of terrane theory and presents 16 new works that review and synthesize the current state of knowledge for the Gondwana margin, from Australia through New Zealand and Antarctica to South America, examining the evolution of the whole Gondwana margin through time.

Mantle plumes and Antarctica-New Zealand rifting: evidence from mid-Cretaceous mafic dykes

Ocean floor magnetic anomalies show that New Zealand was the last continental fragment to separate from Antarctica during Gondwana break-up, drifting from Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, about 84 Ma ago. Prior to continental drift, a voluminous suite of mafic dykes (dated by Ar–Ar laser stepped heating at 107 ± 5 Ma) and anorogenic silicic rocks, including syenites and peralkaline granitoids (95–102 Ma), were emplaced in Marie Byrd Land during a rifting event. The mafic dyke suite includes both high- and low-Ti basalts. Trace element and Sr and Nd isotope compositions of the mafic dykes may be modelled by mixing between tholeiitic OIB (asthenosphere-derived) and alkaline high- to low-Ti alkaline magmas (lithospheric mantle derived). Pb isotopes indicate that the OIB component had a HIMU composition. We suggest that the rift-related magmatism was generated in the vicinity of a mantle plume. The plume helped to control the position of continental separation within the very wide region of continental extension that developed when the Pacific–Phoenix spreading ridge approached the subduction zone. Separation of New Zealand from Antarctica occurred when the Pacific–Phoenix spreading centre propagated into the Antarctic continent. Sea floor spreading in the region of the mantle plume may have caused an outburst of volcanism along the spreading ridge generating an oceanic plateau, now represented by the 10–15 km thick Hikurangi Plateau situated alongside the Chatham Rise, New Zealand. The plateau consists of tholeiitic OIB-MORB basalt, regarded as Cretaceous in age, and similar in composition to the putative tholeiitic end-member in the Marie Byrd Land dykes. The mantle plume is proposed to now underlie the western Ross Sea, centred beneath Mount Erebus, where it was largely responsible for the very voluminous, intraplate, alkaline McMurdo Volcanic Group. A second mantle plume beneath Marie Byrd Land formed the Cenozoic alkaline volcanic province.

Strongly potassic mafic magmas from lithospheric mantle sources during continental extension and heating: evidence from Miocene minettes of northwest Colorado, U.S.A.

Abstract Minette occurs as sparse dykes and sills in the Upper-Miocene Elkhead Mountains igneous province, NW Colorado. At the time of magma emplacement, the region was undergoing crustal extension and probably also heating of the sub-continental lithospheric mantle by the approaching Yellowstone plume. The predominant magmatism of the province comprises lava field remnants and hypabyssal plutons. Elemental variation within the minette suite is explicable in terms of fractional crystallisation which involved phlogopite separation from even the most magnesian (MgO = 10.68%) samples. Wide ranges of incompatible-element abundances and ratios occur in the minettes with MgO > 6.0%. Some of these ratios (e.g. Ti/Zr andLa/Nb) correlate well with 143 Nd/ 144 Nd in this suite. The minettes have a combination of relatively low values of both 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (0.70387–0.70413) and 143 Nd/ 144 Nd (0.51201–0.51227), with 206 Pb/ 204 Pb (17.28–17.47), 207 Pb/ 204 Pb (15.45–15.54) and 208 Pb/ 204 Pb (36.55–37.02). Taken together, these isotopic characteristics fall far outside the range of all oceanic igneous rocks and therefore rule out an exclusively asthenospheric source for the magmas. Genetic models involving crustal contamination of either basaltic (s.l.) or lamproitic liquids do not appear to explain satisfactorily the geochemical features of the minettes. Alternative models invoke either separate subcontinental lithospheric mantle sources for each magma batch or mixing between upwelling basaltic liquids and varying amounts of ultrapotassic lithospheric melts. Both models fit the geochemical data reasonably well but the latter is, in addition, consistent with a recent analysis by D. McKenzie [8] of the physical constraints on strongly potassic magma genesis during continental lithospheric extension and/or heating above a mantle plume. A brief survey of the tectonic settings of minettes and ultrapotassic rocks worldwide shows that a strong case can be made for their association in space and time with heating and/or thinning of sub-continental lithospheric mantle.

Magmatism in the South Sandwich arc

Abstract The South Sandwich Islands are one of the world’s classic examples of an intraoceanic arc. Formed on recently generated back-arc crust, they represent the earliest stages of formation of arc crust, and are an excellent laboratory for investigating variations in magma chemistry resulting from mantle processes, and generation of silicic magmas in a dominantly basaltic environment. Two volcanoes are examined. Southern Thule in the south of the arc is a complex volcanic edifice with three calderas and compositions that range from mafic to silicic and tholeiitic to calc-alkaline. It is compared to the Candlemas-Vindication edifice in the north of the arc, which is low-K tholeiitic and strongly bimodal from mafic to silicic. Critically, Southern Thule lies along a cross-arc, wide-angle seismic section that reveals the velocity structure of the underlying arc crust. Trace element variations are used to argue that the variations in both mantle depletion and input of a subducted sediment component produced the diverse low-K tholeiite, tholeiite and calc-alkaline series. Primitive, mantle-derived melts fractionally crystallized by c. 36% to produce the most Mg-rich erupted basalts and a high-velocity cumulitic crustal keel. Plagioclase cumulation produced abundant high-Al basalts (especially in the tholeiitic series), and strongly influenced Sr abundances in the magmas. However, examination of volumetric and geochemical arguments indicates that the silicic rocks do not result from fractional crystallization, and are melts of amphibolitic arc crust instead.

Geochemical tracing of Pacific-to-Atlantic upper-mantle flow through the Drake passage

The Earths convecting upper mantle can be viewed as comprising three main reservoirs, beneath the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Because of the uneven global distribution and migration of ridges and subduction zones, the surface area of the Pacific reservoir is at present contracting at about 0.6 km2 yr-1, while the Atlantic and Indian reservoirs are growing at about 0.45 km2 yr-1 and 0.15 km2 yr-1, respectively. Garfunkel and others have argued that there must accordingly be net mantle flow from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Indian reservoirs (in order to maintain mass balance), and Alvarez further predicted that this flow should be restricted to the few parts of the Pacific rim (here termed ‘gateways’) where there are no continental roots or subduction zones that might act as barriers to shallow mantle flow. The main Pacific gateways are, according to Alvarez, the southeast Indian Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Drake passage. Here we report geochemical data which confirm that there has been some outflow of Pacific mantle into the Drake passage—but probably in response to regional tectonic constraints, rather than global mass-balance requirements. We also show that a mantle domain boundary, equivalent to the Australian–Antarctic discordance, must lie between the Drake passage and the east Scotia Sea.

New aerogeophysical view of the Antarctic Peninsula: More pieces, less puzzle

New airborne geophysical data reveal subglacial imprints of crustal growth of the Antarctic Peninsula by Mesozoic arc magmatism and terrane accretion along the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. Potential field signatures indicate that the Antarctic Peninsula batholith is a composite magmatic arc terrane comprising two distinct arcs, separated by a >1500 km-long suture zone, similar to the Peninsular Ranges batholith in southern and Baja California. Aeromagnetic, aerogravity and geological data suggest that a mafic Early Cretaceous western arc was juxtaposed against a more felsic eastern arc which, in mid-Cretaceous times, was intruded by highly magnetic tonalitic/granodioritic plutons of island arc affinity. Suturing of the two arcs against the Gondwana margin caused the mid-Cretaceous Palmer Land orogenic event. Convergence and suturing may have been driven by two subduction zones or, alternatively, by a decrease in slab dip, leading to an inboard migration of the arc, as in California.

Miocene hydrovolcanism in NW Colorado, USA, fuelled by explosive mixing of basic magma and wet unconsolidated sediment

The Yampa and Elkhead Mountains volcanic fields were erupted into sediment-filled fault basins during Miocene crustal extension in NW Colorado. Post-Miocene uplift and erosion has exposed alkali basalt lavas, pyroclastic deposits, volcanic necks and dykes which record hydrovolcanic and strombolian phenomena at different erosion depths. The occurrence of these different phenomena was related to the degree of lithification of the rocks through which the magmas rose. Hydrovolcanic interactions only occurred where rising basaltic magma encountered wet, porous, non-lithified sediments of the 600 m thick Miocene Browns Park Formation. The interactions were fuelled by groundwater in these sediments: there was probably no standing surface water. Dykes intruded into the sediments have pillowed sides, and local swirled inclusions of sediment that were injected while fluidized in steam from heated pore water. Volcanic necks in the sediments consist of basaltic tuff, sediment blocks and separated grains derived from the sediments, lithic blocks (mostly derived from a conglomerate forming the local base of the Browns Park Formation), and dykes composed of disaggregated sediment. The necks are cut by contemporaneous basalt dykes. Hydrovolcanic pyroclastic deposits formed tuff cones up to 100 m thick consisting of bedded air-fall, pyroclastic surge, and massive, poorly sorted deposits (MPSDs). All these contain sub-equal volumes of basaltic tuff and disaggregated sediment grains from the Browns Park Formation. Possible explosive and effusive modes of formation for the MPSDs are discussed. Contemporaneous strombolian scoria deposits overlie lithified Cretaceous sedimentary rocks or thick basalt lavas. Volcanic necks intruded into the Cretaceous rocks consist of basalt clasts (some with spindle-shape), lithic clasts, and megacrysts derived from the magma, and are cut by basalt dykes. Rarely, strombolian deposits are interbedded with hydrovolcanic pyroclastic deposits, recording changes in eruption behaviour during one eruption. The hydrovolcanic eruptions occurred by interaction of magma with groundwater in the Browns Park sediments. The explosive interactions disaggregated the sediment. Such direct digestion of sediment by the magma in the vents would probably not have released enough water to maintain a water/magma mass ratio sufficient for hydrovolcanic explosions to produce the tuff cones. Probably, additional water (perhaps 76% of the total) was derived by flow through the permeable sediments (especially the basal conglomerate to the formation), and into the vents.