Thierry Calmus

Late Miocene adakites and Nb-enriched basalts from Vizcaino Peninsula, Mexico: Indicators of East Pacific Rise subduction below southern Baja California?

A typical slab melt association was emplaced from 11 to 8 Ma in the Santa Clara volcanic field, Vizcaino Peninsula, Baja California Sur. It includes adakitic domes and associated pyroclastic flow deposits, together with lava flows of niobium-enriched basalts. The trace element and isotopic (Sr-Nd-Pb) signatures of adakites are consistent with melting of altered mid-ocean ridge basalts, and the sources of the Nb-enriched basalts contain an enriched mantle wedge component. Such associations commonly form at depths of 70–80 km during low-dip subduction of very young oceanic crust. However, the Santa Clara field is relatively close (100 km) to the paleotrench, which suggests that the genesis of its adakites and Nb- enriched basalts occurred in a very high thermal regime linked to the subduction of the then-active Guadalupe spreading center of the East Pacific Rise. Our data suggest that the asthenospheric window documented below northern Baja California also developed beneath the south of the peninsula during the Neogene. This hypothesis is consistent with the spatial distribution and the ages of adakites and magnesian andesites from this region.

Spatial and temporal evolution of basalts and magnesian andesites (“bajaites”) from Baja California, Mexico: the role of slab melts

Late Miocene to Quaternary basalts and associated magnesian basaltic andesites and andesites, locally referred to as ‘‘bajaites’’, occur in the central part of the Baja California (BC) Peninsula. They form five volcanic fields (Jaraguay, San Borja, San Ignacio, Santa Rosalia, La Purisima) delineating a 600-km-long array parallel to the Gulf of California. They range in age from Late Miocene to Pleistocene, and display very specific geochemical characteristics: SiO2=50% to 58%, high MgO contents, very low FeO*/MgO ratios usually less than 1.5, highly fractionated rare earth element patterns with low Yand heavy rare earth element, very high Sr (commonly between 2000 and 3000 ppm) and Ba (up to 2300 ppm) contents. The geochemical study and K–Ar dating of ca. 50 samples of these rocks allow us to show that most of their incompatible element ratios, which vary significantly in space and time, reflect source heterogeneities rather than partial melting, fractional crystallisation or crustal contamination effects. Their slab melt imprint increases from northwest to southeast and with time. It is best expressed in the geochemical signatures of Quaternary lavas from La Purisima volcanic field. These features reflect the origin of the ‘‘bajaites’’ by melting of mantle peridotites previously metasomatised by slab melts, in connection with the opening of an asthenospheric window below the Baja California Peninsula during Early and Middle Miocene in northern Baja California, and during Late Miocene in southern Baja California. Melting was initiated by the high thermal regime accompanying ridge subduction or slab tearing/breakoff, and later by Plio-Pleistocene thermal pulses linked to the opening of the Gulf of California. We show that the incongruent melting of metasomatic pargasitic amphibole, leaving a garnet-rich residue, accounts for most of the specific geochemical features of the magnesian andesite suite. This breakdown started at ca. 1000 jC at depths of 70–110 km, and amphibole was probably not entirely consumed during the melting process. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Geochemical Diversity of Late Miocene Volcanism in Southern Baja California, Mexico: Implication of Mantle and Crustal Sources during the Opening of an Asthenospheric Window

Five main petrologic and geochemical groups can be identified among the Middle to Late Miocene lavas from the western part of southern Baja California: (1) calc‐alkaline and K‐rich andesites emplaced between 15.5 and 11.7 Ma; (2) adakites and (3) associated niobium‐rich basalts erupted between 11.7 and 8.5 Ma in the Santa Clara volcanic field, Vizcaino Peninsula; (4) 10.6–9.2 Ma tholeiitic basalts and basaltic andesites that form large tabular plateaus near San Ignacio; and (5) magnesian and basaltic andesites of adakitic affinity whose emplacement started at 11.7 Ma south of San Ignacio and between 9.7 and 8.8 Ma near La Purisima. These lavas, although spatially and temporally related, display very different geochemical signatures. Their trace elements and isotopic characteristics suggest that three different magma sources were involved in their genesis. Partial melts of subducting altered oceanic crust produced the adakites when erupted directly at the surface. These magmas were eventually trapped in the mantle wedge where they reacted with ultramafic lithologies. Such slab‐melt‐metasomatized mantle could then melt to produce niobium‐rich basalts or magnesian andesites, depending on the pressure that controlled the stability of garnet into the mantle wedge. The melting of fluid‐metasomatized mantle wedge led to the emplacement of andesites. In southern Baja California, the opening of a slab window following active ridge subduction resulted in the additional contribution of partial melts from the suboceanic mantle uprising through the tear in the slab. This process might be responsible for the occurrence of tholeiitic basalts and basaltic andesites near San Ignacio. The studied association can be considered as a modern analog of high‐thermal‐regime Archean subductions.

Glacial‐interglacial trench supply variation, spreading‐ridge subduction, and feedback controls on the Andean margin development at the Chile triple junction area (45–48°S)

During the Chile triple junction (CTJ) cruise (March–April 1997), EM12 bathymetry and seismic reflection data were collected in the vicinity of the Chile triple junction (45-480S), where an active spreading ridge is being subducted beneath the Andean continental margin. Results show a continental margin development shaped by tectonic processes spanning a spectrum from subduction-erosion to subduction-accretion. The Andean continental margin and the Chile trench exhibit a strong segmentation which reflects the slab segmentation and the Chile triple junction migration. Three segments were identified along the Andean continental margin: the presubduction, the synsubduction, and the postsubduction segments, from north to south. Both climate-induced variations of the sediment supply to the trench and the tectonic reorganization at the Nazca-Antarctica plate boundary involving postsubduction ridge jump are the two main factors that control the tectonic regime of this continental margin. Along the survey area we infer the succession of two different periods during the last glacial-interglacial cycle: a glacial period with ice-rafted detrital discharges restricted to the shoreline area and low river output and a warmer period during which the Andean ice cap retreat allowed the Andes to be drained off. During these warm periods, rapid increase in trench deposition caused the margin to switch from subductionerosion or nonaccretion to subduction-accretion: (1) along the presubduction segment after the last deglaciation and (2) along the postsubduction segment after the interglacial episode at 130–117 ka. Conversely, a nonaccretion or subduction-erosion mode characterized the presubduction and postsubduction segments during glacial maximums. The major effects of subduction of the buoyant Chile ridge include a shallow trench which diverts trench sediment supply and tectonic instabilities at the Nazca-Antarctica plate boundary. We suggest that a postsubduction westward jump of the Chile ridge occurred during the past 780 kyr. It produced slab fragmentation and individualization of an ephemeral microplate north of the Taitao fracture zone: the Chonos microplate. In 780 kyr, two episodes of subduction-accretion separated by an episode of subduction-erosion occurred in relation with the Chonos microplate individualization and subduction. The current northward migration of the triple junction along the Chonos microplate-South America plate boundary introduces a sharp change in the tectonic mode from subduction-erosion to the north to subduction-accretion to the south. The data collected along the Taitao ridge have revealed the complex three-dimensional structure of an accretionary wedge which includes a midslope thrust sheet exhibiting the characteristics of an ophiolite: the Taitao Ridge ophiolite. No connection exists between the Taitao Ridge ophiolite and the Bahia Barrientos ophiolite cropping out onland in the Taitao peninsula.

Mazatan metamorphic core complex (Sonora, Mexico): structures along the detachment fault and its exhumation evolution

The Mazatan Sierra is the southernmost metamorphic core complex (MCC) of the Tertiary extensional belt of the western Cordillera. Its structural and lithological features are similar to those found in other MCC in Sonora and Arizona. The lower plate is composed of Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks intruded by Tertiary plutons, both of which are overprinted by mylonitic foliation and N708E- trending stretching lineation. Ductile and brittle- ductile deformations were produced by Tertiary extension along a normal shear zone or detachment fault. Shear sense is consistent across the Sierra and indicates a top to the WSW motion. The lithology and fabric reflect variations in temperature and pressure conditions during extensional deformation. The upper plate consists mainly of Cambrian - Mississippian limestone and minor quartzite, covered by upper Cretaceous volcanic rocks, and then by Tertiary syntectonic sedimentary deposits with interbedded volcanic flows. Doming caused uplift and denudation of the detachment, as well as successive low-angle and high- angle normal faulting across the western slope of Mazatan Sierra. An 18 ^ 3 Ma apatite fission-track age was obtained for a sample of Proterozoic monzogranite from the lower plate. The mean fission-track length indicates rapid cooling and consequent rapid uplift of this sample during the last stage of crustal extension. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic thermotectonic history of the Mexican Pacific margin (18 to 25°N): new insight from apatite and zircon fission-track analysis of coastal and offshore plutonic rocks

Abstract Apatite and zircon fission-track dating was used to constrain cooling histories on granitic samples taken from the offshore Acapulco trench batholith and onshore Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta batholiths located along the southwestern active margin of Mexico, and from the La Paz batholith of southern Baja California. The apatite data indicate that many of the samples in the Manzanillo, Acapulco trench batholiths cooled rapidly below 60°C shortly after emplacement between 70 and 55 Ma. The La Paz batholith and the sample NM-20-08 of the Acapulco trench batholith experienced an older and slower cooling across the apatite partial annealing zone. The zircon fission-track ages obtained from two samples of the Puerto Vallarta batholith indicate a rapid cooling from 250 to 110°C between 54 and 50 Ma. This non-coeval cooling of batholiths at two different depths is probably due to uplift and erosion associated with the Laramide event in southwestern Mexico. The three samples from the Puerto Vallarta batholith suggest a younger evolution across low temperatures with two flat stages located near the base of the apatite partial annealing zone and above it. The first flat stage suggests that the denudation or rock uplift rate was reduced at a depth corresponding to the base of the apatite partial annealing zone. The younger single apatite ages of the Puerto Vallarta batholith, and the last common cooling of the other batholiths indicate the mild thermal influences of both the Plio-Pleistocene Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the opening of the Gulf of California.

Origin of the adakite–high-Nb basalt association and its implications for postsubduction magmatism in Baja California, Mexico: Discussion

Constraining the origin of the adakite–high-Nb basalt (HNB) association in Baja California, Mexico, is critical to a better understanding of global arc magmatism. Currently the preferred explanation for the close spatial and temporal association of the two rock suites is through melting of the basaltic portion of the subducted Farallon-Cocos plate, thus providing support for the slab-melting origin of adakites elsewhere. Moreover, a tectono-magmatic model involving the production of both adakite and HNB from slab melts offers a comprehensive explanation for the origin of the atypical, arc-related, postsubduction magmatism in Baja California. This paper proposes alternative models for the origin of HNB and postsubduction magmatism in Baja California, wherein the unusual geologic setting of western Mexico and westward movement of North America permitted the influx of Pacific asthenosphere beneath the adjacent Gulf of California after the cessation of subduction. Unlike the previous tectono-magmatic model, the new models propose that the asthenosphere provided a direct source for postsubduction tholeiitic and rare alkali magmas that were erupted in Baja California as tholeiites and HNB, respectively. Fractional crystallization of some of the HNB magmas plus assimilation of tholeiitic materials produced Nb-enriched basalts (NEB). The influx of Pacific asthenosphere after the cessation of subduction also provided thermal energy to melt the mafic lower Baja California crust, producing adakite rocks, and the preexist-ing metasomatized mantle wedge, producing bajaites and calc-alkaline magmas.