Petrology and geochemistry of the Huerto Andesite,San Juan volcanic field,Colorado

The Huerto Andesite is the largest of several andesite sequences interlayered with the large-volume ash-flow tuffs of the San Juan volcanic field, Colorado. Stratigraphically this andesite is between the region's largest tuff (the 27.8 Ma, 3,000 km³ Fish Canyon Tuff) and the evolved product of the Fish Canyon Tuff (the 27.4 Ma, 1,000 km³ Carpenter Ridge Tuff), and eruption was from vents located approximately 20–30 km southwest and southeast of calderas associated with these ashflow tuffs. Olivine phenocrysts are present in the more mafic, SiO₂-poor samples of andesite, hence the parent magma was most likely a mantle-derived basaltic magma. The bulk compositions of the olivine-bearing andesites compared to those containing orthopyroxene phenocrysts suggest the phenocryst assemblage equilibrated at 2–5 kbar. Two-pyroxene geothermometry yields equilibrium temperatures consistent with near-peritectic magmas at 2–5 kbar. Fractionation of phenocryst phases (olivine or orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + plagioclase + Ti-magnetite + apatite) can explain most major and trace element variations of the andesites, although assimilation of some crustal material may explain abundances of some highly incompatible trace elements (Rb, Ba, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf) in the most evolved lavas. Despite the great distance of the San Juan volcanic field from the inferred Oligocene destructive margin, the Huerto Andesite is similar to typical plate-margin andesites: both have relatively low abundances of Nb and Ta and similar values for trace-element ratios such as La/Yb and La/Nb.Deriving the Fish Canyon and Carpenter Ridge Tuffs by crystal fractionation from the Huerto Andesite cannot be dismissed by major-element models, although limited trace-element data indicate the tuffs may not have been derived by such direct evolution. Alternatively, heat of crystallization released as basaltic magmas evolved to andesitic compositions may have caused melting of crust to produce the felsic-ash flows. Mafic magmas may have been gravitationally trapped below lighter felsic magmas; mafic magmas which ascended to the surface probably migrated upwards around the margins of silicic chambers, as suggested by the present-day outcrops of andesitic units around the margins of recognized ash-flow calderas.