Petrology and geochemistry of volcanic rocks of the Cerro Galan caldera, northwest Argentina

1989 ◽  
Vol 126 (5) ◽  
pp. 515-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Francis ◽  
R. S. J. Sparks ◽  
C. J. Hawkesworth ◽  
R. S. Thorpe ◽  
D. M. Pyle ◽  
...  

AbstractAt least 2000 km3 of relatively uniform dacitic magma have been erupted from the Cerro Galan caldera complex, northwest Argentina. Between 7 and 4 Ma ago several composite volcanoes predominantly of dacitic lava were constructed, and several large high-K dacitic ignimbrites were erupted. 2.2 Ma ago the > 1000km3 Cerro Galan ignimbrite was erupted. The predominant mineral assemblage in the ignimbrites is plagioclase-biotite-quartz-magnetite-ilmenite; the Cerro Galan ignimbrite also contains sanidine. Fe-Ti oxide minerals in the Cerro Galan ignimbrite imply temperatures of 801–816 °C. Plagioclase phenocrysts in the ignimbrites typically have rather homogeneous cores surrounded by complex, often oscillatory zoned, rims. Core compositions show a marked bimodality, with one population consisting of calcic cores surrounded by normally zoned rims, and a second of sodic cores surrounded by reversely zoned rims. The older ignimbrites do not show systematic compositional zonation, but the Cerro Galan ignimbrite exhibits small variations in major elements (66–69% SiO2) and significant variations in Rb, Sr, Ba, Th and other trace elements, consistent with derivation from a weakly zoned magma chamber, in which limited fractional crystallization occurred. The ignimbrites have 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7108–0.7181; 143Nd/144Nd = 0.51215–0.51225, and δ18O = + 10 to + 12.5, consistent with a significant component of relatively non-radiogenic crust with high Rb/Sr and enriched in incompatible elements. Nd model ages for the source region are about 1.24 Ga. 87Sr/86Sr measurements of separated plagioclases indicate that Anrich cores have slightly lower 87Sr/86Sr than less calcic plagioclases, suggesting a small degree of isotopic heterogeniety in different components within the magmas. Pb isotope data for plagioclase show restricted ranges (206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb = 18.87–18.92, 15.65–15.69 and 39.06–39.16 respectively), and suggest derivation from Proterozoic crustal material(> 1.5 Ga).Contemporaneous satellite scoria cones and lavas are high-K basalts, basaltic andesites and andesites with SiO2 = 51–57%; K2O = 2–3% and normative plagioclase compositions of An37–48, and may be derived from a mantle source containing both ‘subduction zone’ and ‘within plate’ components. 87Sr/86Sr ranges from 0.7055 to 0.7094 and 143Nd/144Nd from 0.51250 to 0.51290. Variation diagrams such as MgO: SiO2 show two trends, one indicating closed system fractional crystallization and the other crustal contamination. AFC modelling of the open system rocks indicates a parental mantle-derived mafic magma which is itself enriched in K, Rb, Ba, U, Ta/Sm, Ta/Th and Sr, and has 87Sr/86Sr = 0.705–0.706, while the contaminant need not be more radiogenic than the dacitic ignimbrites.The Cerro Galan dacitic magmas are interpreted in terms of a deep and uniform region of the central Andean continental crust repeatedly melted by emplacement of incompatible-element-enriched, mantle-derived mafic magmas, a proportion of which may also have mixed with the dacite magmas. A component of the crustal material had a Proterozoic age. The magmas derived by crustal melting were also enriched in incompatible elements either by crystal/liquid fractionation processes, or by metasomatism of their source regions just prior to magma generation. Much of the crystallization took place in the source region during the melting process or in mid-crustal magma chambers. The magmas may have re-equilibrated at shallow levels prior to eruption, but only limited compositional zonation developed in high-level magma chambers.

Author(s):  
E.G. Grosch ◽  
J. Slama

Abstract This study presents new field and petrological observations combined with geochemical data on a range of komatiitic to tholeiitic volcanic rocks from the ca. 3.48 Ga mid-lower Komati Formation type-section of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. A range of mafic-ultramafic rocks is identified across a 1.44 km profile, leading to the proposition of a new preliminary volcanic architecture for the mid-lower Komati Formation type-section. Major, trace and rare earth element (REE) data in conjunction with Lu-Hf isotopic constraints indicate that the tholeiites, newly recognized high-magnesium basalts, basaltic komatiites and komatiites in the volcanic sequence have a primitive mantle signature with no geochemical affinity to Archaean or modern-day supra-subduction zone boninites. The whole rock initial εHf values of spinifex and massive komatiite flows in the lowermost part of the Komati type-section are negative, ranging between -1.9 and -3.1, whereas the second overlying spinifex and massive flow unit records positive initial εHf values between +0.5 and +4.7. A new geodynamic model involving crustal contamination of the mafic-ultramafic lavas is proposed for the Barberton mid-lower Komati Formation type-section, involving mantle plume-crust interaction. The new observations and data indicate that the komatiites erupted as a result of a mantle plume from a hot (>1 600oC) mid-Archaean mantle, in which the earliest volcanic flows were variably affected by crustal contamination during their ascent and eruption. The possibility of incorporation of lower crustal material and/or recycled crust residing in the mantle source region cannot be excluded. This indicates that modern-style plate tectonic processes, such as subduction, may not have been a requirement for the formation of the 3.48 Ga Barberton komatiite suite, with implications for the hydration state, geodynamic processes and secular thermal evolution of the Archaean mantle.


1986 ◽  
Vol 123 (6) ◽  
pp. 619-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Wyborn ◽  
B. W. Chappell

AbstractComagmatic granitic and volcanic rocks are divided into two types depending on whether or not the primary magma contains restite crystals. Examples of both of these types are discussed from the Lachlan Fold Belt of southeastern Australia.Volcanic rocks containing restite phenocrysts are chemically identical to the associated plutonic rocks containing the same amount of restite. The more mafic granitic rocks correspond in composition to the most phenocryst-rich volcanics (up to 60% phenocrysts), and thus cannot be cumulate rocks produced by fractional crystallization, but must represent true magma compositions. These restite-bearing magmas result from partial melting in a source region up to the rheological critical melt percentage, which we estimate to be about 40% in the S-type Hawkins Suite of volcanics.Melts which escape their restite at the source, before the critical melt percentage is reached, are able to undergo fractional crystallization in high level magma chambers by heterogeneous crystallization on chamber walls. In this case volcanic products from the top of the chamber are more felsic than the plutonic products, the plutonics are crystal cumulates and the volcanics are composed of the complementary fractionated liquid. Those phenocrysts present in the volcanics were probably eroded from the chamber walls and are less abundant (< 20%) than in the restite-retentive volcanic products.


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Smith ◽  
Alan D. Brandon ◽  
Richard StJ. Lambert

Volcanic rocks of the Nicola Group belong to an arc built on the western margin of the Quesnel terrane in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic. Low-K – high-K compositional types define a Rb–Sr isochron of 222 ± 15 Ma with initial 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70367 ± 2. The corresponding Nd isotopic compositions of these samples (εNd(222 Ma) = +5.1 to +7.8) fall within the range for early Mesozoic island arcs. A comparable range of εNd(222 Ma) (+5.0 to +7.9) in picrite–shoshonite samples precludes generation of increasingly potassic magmas by progressive metasomatism of the mantle wedge alone. Source-region heterogeneity, possibly imparted by changes in the composition of subducted slab components or interaction with amphibole or phlogopite in the source remnant of an earlier (Permian) arc on the Quesnel terrane, is required to account for geochemical differences between these rock suites. Crustal contamination is severely limited from the high εNd values, such that continental basement now underlying the Quesnel terrane is likely an artifact of later terrane obduction.


1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1169-1189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Picard ◽  
Michel Piboule

In the western part of the Chapais syncline (Abitibi East, Quebec), the Opemisca Group unconformably overlies the Roy Group at a low angle. It consists of a thick turbidite sequence covered by an interdigitated sequence of lavas and alluvial cone sediments. The subaerial lavas include two sequences evolving from porphyric metabasalts to metatrachyandesites and porphyric metatrachytes (lower sequence) or to K-rich aphanitic meta-andesites (upper sequence). These lavas, with calc-alkaline to shoshonitic affinity, have high K2O, Ba, Sr, and Th contents and show highly enriched LREE spectra.The behaviour of major elements, trace elements, and lanthanides suggests an origin from partial melting of a mantle source consisting of a garnet lherzolite enriched in K, Sr, Rb, Ba, and Th by volatile elements and also by crustal contamination and by fractional crystallization mechanisms. The evolution of the lavas of the lower sequence, progressively deficient in Y, seems to have been controlled by fractional crystallization of a plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and olivine mixture; this was followed for the metatrachyandesites and metatrachytes by high H2O activity of a feldspar, amphibole, titanomagnetite, and apatite mixture. The evolution of lavas enriched in Y in the upper sequence seems to have been controlled by weak H2O activity of the anhydrous plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and olivine assemblage.The petrographic and geochemical data suggest an emplacement similar to that occurring on the active continental margins of the central Andes and implies the existence of a late-stage ensialic arc. [Translated by the journal]


1982 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert E. Huppert ◽  
J. Stewart Turner ◽  
R. Stephen ◽  
J. Sparks

1997 ◽  
Vol 134 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. McCUTCHEON ◽  
H. E. ANDERSON ◽  
P. T. ROBINSON

Stratigraphic, petrographic and geochemical evidence indicate that the volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Late Devonian Piskahegan Group, located in the northern Appalachians of southwestern New Brunswick, represent the eroded remnants of a large epicontinental caldera complex. This complex – the Mount Pleasant Caldera – is one of few recognizable pre-Cenozoic calderas and is divisible into Exocaldera, Intracaldera and Late Caldera-Fill sequences. The Intracaldera Sequence comprises four formations that crop out in a triangular-shaped area and includes: thick ash flow tuffs, thick sedimentary breccias that dip inward, and stocks of intermediate to felsic composition that intrude the volcanic pile or are localized along caldera-margin faults. The Exocaldera Sequence contains ash flow tuffs, mafic lavas, alluvial redbeds and porphyritic felsic lavas that comprise five formations. The Late Caldera-Fill Sequence contains rocks that are similar to those of the outflow facies and comprises two formations and two minor intrusive units. Geochemical and mineralogical data support the stratigraphic subdivision and indicate that the basaltic rocks are mantle-derived and have intraplate chemical affinities. The andesites were probably derived from basaltic magma by fractional crystallization and assimilation of crustal material. The various felsic units are related by episodes of fractional crystallization in a high-level, zoned magma chamber. Fractionation was repeatedly interrupted by eruption of material from the roof zone such that seven stages of caldera development have been identified. The genesis of the caldera is related to a period of lithospheric thinning that followed the Acadian Orogeny in the northern Appalachians.


There are well established differences in the chemical and isotopic characteristics of the calc-alkaline basalt—andesite-dacite-rhyolite association of the northern (n.v.z.), central (c.v.z.) and southern volcanic zones (s.v.z.) of the South American Andes. Volcanic rocks of the alkaline basalt-trachyte association occur within and to the east of these active volcanic zones. The chemical and isotopic characteristics of the n.v.z. basaltic andesites and andesites and the s.v.z. basalts, basaltic andesites and andesites are consistent with derivation by fractional crystallization of basaltic parent magmas formed by partial melting of the asthenospheric mantle wedge containing components from subducted oceanic lithosphere. Conversely, the alkaline lavas are derived from basaltic parent magmas formed from mantle of ‘within-plate’ character. Recent basaltic andesites from the Cerro Galan volcanic centre to the SE of the c.v.z. are derived from mantle containing both subduction zone and within-plate components, and have experienced assimilation and fractional crystallization (a.f.c.) during uprise through the continental crust. The c.v.z. basaltic andesites are derived from mantle containing subduction-zone components, probably accompanied by a.f.c. within the continental crust. Some c.v.z. lavas and pyroclastic rocks show petrological and geochemical evidence for magma mixing. The petrogenesis of the c.v.z. lavas is therefore a complex process in which magmas derived from heterogeneous mantle experience assimilation, fractional crystallization, and magma mixing during uprise through the continental crust.


1992 ◽  
Vol 154 ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
T Winther

Numerous dyke intrusions are found in the Narssarssuaq area of the Gardar province, a Mid-Proterozoic intracontinental rift system. Ten to fifteen percent of these dykes, which range in composition from trachybasalt to phonolite and rhyolite, contain significant proportions of feldspar megacrysts and occasionally anorthosite xenoliths. Two groups of dykes are distinguished; the older group is more alkaline, richer in incompatible elements and contains more anorthosite xenoliths than the younger. It is probable that the main reason for the differences is variation in magma production through time and from one area to another. Chemical zonation in the dykes reflects compositional gradients in the feeding magma reservoirs; the magma reservoirs acting as open systems in which crystal fractionation was an important controlling process. The anorthosite xenoliths are not strictly cognate with their hosts, but were derived from comparable alkaline magmas with a composition roughly corresponding to the most primitive of the dykes. The plagioclase megacrysts were presumably formed at an early stage of the development of the magma chambers. Rb-Sr dating of one of the dykes from the older group of dykes gives an age of 1206 ± 20 Ma and an initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7028 ± 0.0001 supporting a low degree of contamination with upper crustal Sr.


1994 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lowry ◽  
Adrian J. Boyce ◽  
Anthony E. Fallick ◽  
W. Edryd Stephens

AbstractMineralisation associated with Late Caledonian metaluminous granitoids in the Grampian Terrane has been investigated using stable isotope, fluid inclusion and mineralogical techniques.A porphyry-stock-related style of mineralisation in the Grampian Terrane is characterised by a stockwork of veinlets and disseminations in dacite prophyries, consisting of quartz, dolomite, sulphides and late calcite, and well-developed wallrock alteration dominated by zones of phyllic, sericitic and propylitic alteration. On the basis of δ34S (+0·4±l·0‰), δ13C (−5·7‰ to + l·4‰) and δ18O (+10·8‰ to +19·9‰) it is likely that initial mineralising components were orthomagmatic with an input of external fluids during the later parageneses. Fluids were saline, boiling (up to 560°C), deficient in CO2, and ore deposition took place at depths of less than 3 km.Plutonic-hosted mineralisation in appinites, diorites, tonalites and monzogranites is commonly represented by sporadic disseminations and occasional veins consisting of quartz, calcite and sulphides. Wallrock alteration is generally propylitic with phyllic vein selvages. Deposition from a cooling magma sourced fluid is indicated by δ34S (+2·6±l·5‰), δ13C (−7·2‰ to −4·5‰) and δ18O (+9·5‰ to + ll·8‰) data. Fluids were CO2-rich and of low salinity; inclusions were trapped below ≈460°C, and formed at estimated depths of 3–5 km.Differences between these styles of mineralisation may due to multiple factors, the most important being the nature of the fluid: porphyry systems are dominated by greater volumes and much higher temperatures of hydrothermal fluids. Other controlling factors are likely to be the compositional characteristics of the melt source region, the mechanism of magma ascent, the level of emplacement, and the nature of the host metasediments. Variations in δ34S between the two groups are related, for the most part, to redox processes during magma and fluid genesis and not by crustal contamination.Nolarge porphyry-related mineral deposits have been found in the Grampian Terrane, unlike those in Mesozoic and Tertiary continental margin environments. This is largely due to a combination of detrimental factors which massively reducesthe probability of economic mineralisation. These include the already metamorphosed nature of the host Dalradian, the absence of seawater (which entered many subduction-related magmatic systems), a poorly-developed system of deep faults (most deposits too deep to be influenced by surface-derived fluids), and the absence of supergene enrichment. The main processes which aid the concentration of mineralisation involve encroachment of external fluids (formation, meteoric and seawaters) into the magmatic system, but these fluids were largely absent from the Grampian host block at the time of granitoid intrusion.The results of this study can be used in characterising the sources of fluids in sedimentary-hosted ore veins known (or considered) to be underlain by metaluminous granitoid batholiths, particularly in estimating the degree of magmatic fluid inputs into the vein systems: an example where this interaction has occurred (the Tyndrum Fault Zone) is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Daama Isaac ◽  
Mbowou Gbambie Isaac Bertrand ◽  
Yamgouot Ngounouno Fadimatou ◽  
Ntoumbe Mama ◽  
Ngounouno Ismaïla

The Garga-Sarali granitoids outcrop in form of large slabs and undistorted large blocks, into a schisto-gneissic basement. These rocks contain mainly muscovite and microcline, followed by K-feldspar, quartz, biotite, pyroxene, zircon and oxides, with coarse-grained to fine-grained textures. Geochemical analysis show that it belongs to differentiated rocks group (granodiorite-granite) with high SiO2 (up to 72 wt%) contents. Their genesis was made from a process of partial melting and fractional crystallization. These rocks are classified as belonging to I- and S-Type, meta-peraluminous, shoshonitic granites; belonging to the domain of volcanic arcs. The rare earth elements patterns suggest a source enriched of incompatible elements. The Nb-Ta and Ti negative anomalies from the multi-element patterns are characteristics of the subduction domains.  


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