Potassium-rich volcanic rocks of the Muriah complex, Java, Indonesia: Products of multiple magma sources?

The extinct Pleistocene volcano Muriah, situated behind the main Pleistocene—Recent Sunda magmatic arc in north-central Java, has erupted at least two contrasted groups of lavas. One group forms a well-defined compositional series (Anhydrous Series) from leucite basanite to tephritic phonolite, with olivine and tschermakitic clinopyroxene the main phenocrysts. The other group, the “Hydrous Series”, includes compositionally variable tephrites and high-K andesites with common plagioclase, biotite and amphibole. Lavas of the Anhydrous Series are much richer in LIL trace elements than the most potassic lavas of neighbouring active volcanoes, but relative HFS element enrichment is less pronounced. REE patterns have almost constant slopes from La (250–600 times chondrites) to Yb (5–10 times chondrites), while those of lavas of active centres are less light-enriched, and show flattening in the heavy REE. Anhydrous Series initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (0.7043–0.7046) are lower than those of active centres (0.7047–0.7053). Hydrous Series lavas are intermediate in all these geochemical characteristics.The most mafic A-series leucite basanite, with Mg/(Mg + Fe²⁺) 0.69, 140 ppm Ni and 620 ppm Cr was probably derived from the primary magma for the series by fractionation of only 5 wt.% olivine. Its REE pattern suggests derivation from a garnet-bearing source. Experiments on this basanite, with up to 10% olivine and 20% orthopyroxene added, and in the presence of H₂O and H₂O/CO₂ mixtures, have shown that for all but very high magma water contents, the olivine and garnet liquidus fields are widely separated by fields of phlogopite and clinopyroxene. There is no liquidus field of orthopyroxene. Hence, if magma production involved an equilibrium melting process alone, the most probable sources are of garnet-bearing phlogopite clinopyroxenite type. Alternatively, this magma may represent the end-product of interaction between a low-K basanite magma from a garnet lherzolite source in the asthenosphere and a phlogopite-bearing lherzolite zone in the lower lithosphere. Its production was probably related to crustal doming and extension superimposed on the dominant subduction regime. Hydrous Series magmas may have resulted from mixing between Anhydrous Series magmas and high-K calc-alkaline basaltic to andesitic magmas more directly related to subduction processes.     

A Sr,Nd, Hf,and Pb isotope perspective on the genesis and long-term evolution of alkaline magmas from Erebus volcano,Antarctica

We report new Nd, Hf, Sr, and high-precision Pb isotopic data for 44 lava and tephra samples from Erebus volcano. The samples cover the entire compositional range from basanite to phonolite and trachyte, and represent all three phases of the volcanic evolution from 1.3 Ma to the present. Isotopic analyses of 7 samples from Mt. Morning and the Dry Valley Drilling Project (DVDP) are given for comparison. The Erebus volcano samples have radiogenic ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, unradiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, and intermediate ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd and ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf, and lie along a mixing trajectory between the two end-member mantle components DMM and HIMU. The Erebus time series data show a marked distinction between the early-phase basanites and phonotephrites, whose Nd, Hf, Sr, and Pb isotope compositions are variable (particularly Pb), and the current ‘phase-three’ evolved phonolitic lavas and bombs, whose Nd, Hf, Sr, and Pb isotope compositions are essentially invariant. Magma mixing is inferred to play a fundamental role in establishing the isotopic and compositional uniformity in the evolved phase-three phonolites. In-situ analyses of Pb isotopes in melt inclusions hosted in an anorthoclase crystal from a 1984 Erebus phonolite bomb and in an olivine from a DVDP basanite are uniform and identical to the host lavas within analytical uncertainties. We suggest that, in both cases, the magma was well mixed at the time melt inclusions were incorporated into the different mineral phases.     

Major element, REE, and Pb, Nd and Sr isotopic geochemistry of Cenozoic volcanic rocks of eastern China: implications for their origin from suboceanic-type mantle reservoirs

Major- and rare-earth-element (REE) concentrations and UThPb, SmNd, and RbSr isotope systematics are reported for Cenozoic volcanic rocks from northeastern and eastern China. These volcanic rocks, characteristically lacking the calc-alkaline suite of orogenic belts, were emplaced in a rift system which formed in response to the subduction of the western Pacific plate beneath the eastern Asiatic continental margin. The rocks sampled range from basanite and alkali olivine basalt, through olivine tholeiite and quartz tholeiite, to potassic basalts, alkali trachytes, pantellerite, and limburgite. These rock suites represent the volcanic centers of Datong, Hanobar, Kuandian, Changbaishan and Wudalianchi in northeastern China, and Mingxi in the Fujian Province of eastern China.The major-element and REE geochemistry is characteristic of each volcanic suite broadly evolving through cogenetic magmatic processes. Some of the outstanding features of the isotopic correlation arrays are as follows: (1) NdSr shows an anticorrelation within the field of ocean island basalts, extending from the MORB end-member to an enriched, time-averaged high Rb/Sr and Nd/Sr end-member (EM1), (2) SrPb also shows an anticorrelation, similar to that of Hawaiian and walvis Ridge basalts, (3) NdPb shows a positive correlation, and (4) the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb vs ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb plot shows linear arrays parallel to the general trend (NHRL) for MORB on both sides of the geochron, although in the ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb vs ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb plot the linear array is significantly displaced above the NHRL in a pattern similar to that of the oceanic island basalts that show the Dupal signatures. In all isotope correlation patterns, the data arrays define two different mantle components—a MORB-like component and an enriched mantle component. The isotopic data presented here clearly demonstrate the existence of Dupal compositions in the sources of the continental volcanic rocks of eastern China. We suggest that the subcontinental mantle beneath eastern China served as the reservoir for the EMI component, and that the MORB component was either introduced by subduction of the Kula-Pacific Ridge beneath the Asiatic plate in the Late Cretaceous, as proposed by Uyeda and Miyashiro, or by upwellings in the subcontinental asthenosphere due to subduction.     

Rb/Sr evidence for the nature of the mantle, thermal events and volcanic activity of the Southeastern Australian continental margin

Rb/Sr isotopic data are presented for three different mantle-derived rock types from a single quarry in the Kiama area in southeastern Australia. These rocks comprise a latite (249 Ma), a basanitic dyke (191 Ma) and mantle-derived xenoliths entrained in the basanitic dyke. Interpretation of the Rb/Sr data with other geochemical results shows that significant crustal contamination of either the latite or the basanite is unlikely. It is suggested that metasomatic mantle events may closely coincide with the production of basaltic magma. Basaltic activity in this area in the late Permian, early Jurassic and Tertiary would imply that a high heat flow may have persisted in southeastern Australia over this time span.⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values of the rocks studied are within the range of intraplate basalts worldwide and support the concept of a REE-enriched upper mantle beneath eastern Australia.     

Evidence for crustal assimilation by turbulently convecting,mafic alkaline magmas: Geochemistry of mantle xenolith-bearing lavas from northern Sardinia

Alkali basalt, trachybasalt and basanite magmas, containing abundant xenoliths of upper mantle origin, were erupted during the Plio-Pleistocene (2.4-0.14 Ma) in northern Sardinia. The magmas are enriched in K, Rb, Th and Ba relative to mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) and most ocean island basalts (OIB), resulting in high K/Nb, Th/Nb, Ba/Nb and Rb/Nb ratios. The large number of spinel peridotite inclusions in these lavas suggests that these chemical features cannot be explained by combined assimilation and fractional crystallization within the continental crust. However, volcanic rock chemistry can be explained by the assimilation of sialic rocks by turbulently convecting, mafic magmas during their ascent to the surface. Fractionation of Ba and K from the light rare earth elements (LREE) is required to explain the positive correlation of K/La and Ba/La with ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_(i). Consequently, bulk assimilation of crystalline basement rocks by rising, hot basaltic magmas cannot explain the observed chemical trends, and preferential melting of a low melting quartzo-feldspathic crustal component probably occurred, leaving the REE in residual phases such as apatite, zircon, sphene and amphibole. Alternatively, large ion lithophile element (LILE) enrichment may have been related to interaction of rising mafic lavas with metasomatized lithospheric mantle or enriched asthenosphere.     

Basanite glaciovolcanism at Llangorse mountain,northern British Columbia,Canada

The Llangorse volcanic field is located in northwest British Columbia, Canada, and comprises erosional remnants of Miocene to Holocene volcanic edifices, lava flows or dykes. The focus of this study is a single overthickened, 100-m-thick-valley-filling lava flow that is Middle-Pleistocene in age and located immediately south of Llangorse Mountain. The lava flow is basanitic in composition and contains mantle-derived peridotite xenoliths. The lava directly overlies a sequence of poorly sorted, crudely bedded volcaniclastic debris-flow sediments. The debris flow deposits contain a diverse suite of clast types, including angular clasts of basanite lava, blocks of peridotite coated by basanite, and rounded boulders of granodiorite. Many of the basanite clasts have been palagonitized. The presence and abundance of clasts of vesicular to scoriaceous, palagonitized basanite and peridotite suggest that the debris flows are syngenetic to the overlying lava flow and sampled the same volcanic vent during the early stages of eruption. They may represent lahars or outburst floods related to melting of a snow pack or ice cap during the eruption. The debris flows were water-saturated when deposited. The rapid subsequent emplacement of a thick basanite flow over the sediments heated pore fluids to at least 80–100°C causing in-situ palagonitization of glassy basanite clasts within the sediments. The over-thickened nature of the Llangorse Mountain lavas suggests ponding of the lava against a down-stream barrier. The distribution of similar-aged glaciovolcanic features in the cordillera suggests the possibility that the barrier was a lower-elevation, valley-wide ice-sheet.     

Mafic alkalic magmatism in central Kachchh,India: a monogenetic volcanic field in the northwestern Deccan Traps

Magmatism in Kachchh, in the northwestern Deccan continental flood basalt province, is represented not only by typical tholeiitic flows and dikes, but also plug-like bodies, in Mesozoic sandstone, of alkali basalt, basanite, melanephelinite and nephelinite, containing mantle nodules. They form the base of the local Deccan stratigraphy and their volcanological context was poorly understood. Based on new and published field, petrographic and geochemical data, we identify this suite as an eroded monogenetic volcanic field. The plugs are shallow-level intrusions (necks, sills, dikes, sheets, laccoliths); one of them is known to have fed a lava flow. We have found local peperites reflecting mingling between magmas and soft sediment, and the remains of a pyroclastic vent composed of non-bedded lapilli tuff breccia, injected by mafic alkalic dikes. The lapilli tuff matrix contains basaltic fragments, glass shards, and detrital quartz and microcline, with secondary zeolites, and there are abundant lithic blocks of mafic alkalic rocks. We interpret this deposit as a maar-diatreme, formed due to phreatomagmatic explosions and associated wall rock fragmentation and collapse. This is one of few known hydrovolcanic vents in the Deccan Traps. The central Kachchh monogenetic volcanic field has >30 individual structures exposed over an area of ∼1,800 km² and possibly many more if compositionally identical igneous intrusions in northern Kachchh are proven by future dating work to be contemporaneous. The central Kachchh monogenetic volcanic field implies low-degree mantle melting and limited, periodic magma supply. Regional directed extension was absent or at best insignificant during its formation, in contrast to the contemporaneous significant directed extension and vigorous mantle melting under the main area of the Deccan flood basalts. The central Kachchh field demonstrates regional-scale volcanological, compositional, and tectonic variability within flood basalt provinces, and adds the Deccan Traps to the list of such provinces containing monogenetic- and/or hydrovolcanism, namely the Karoo-Ferrar and Emeishan flood basalts, and plateau basalts in Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Patagonia.     

Variations in lava composition during the March 1981 eruption of mount etna and the implications of a compositional comparison with earlier historic eruptions

The March 1981 eruption of Mount Etna occurred on the northern slopes of the volcano in an area previously inactive for more than 400 a. A radial fissure system extending 7.5 km and producing 20±2×10⁶ m³ of basic hawaiite lava, opened at 2600 m a.s.l. on 17th March and migrated downslope to 1125 m a.s.l. where activity ceased on 23rd March. Gravity evidence points to the draining of a radial storage-dyke, located between sea-level and +1 km a.s.l. Whole-rock chemistry and petrography suggests that the magma in the dyke was a hybrid supporting crystal and compositional gradients developed as a result of progressively greater mixing of residual 1979 basic hawaiite magma with fresh basic hawaiite magma during permissive filling of the dyke around September 1980. These mixing gradients caused the eruption to display a significant contrast in the concentrations of Al₂O₃, Sr, CaO, MgO and Fe₂O₃ (total) between early, high-altitude and later, low-altitude products. The fresh magma which entered the high-level system around September 1980 ascended rapidly from a deep storage region at 16–24 km depth. On a FMA plot, the composition range of the 1981 lava lies at the end of a temporal variation trend defined by the composition of successive flank eruptions back to 1971 and appears to be repeated by successive eruptions between 1923 and 1949. This suggest that the chemistry of historic lavas may, in a general way, reflect the evolution path of magma in the deep storage region despite masking of detail by high-level processes such as mixing. These temporal trends may, if real, reflect successive batches of freshly generated magma from the mantle source region entering into and subsequently differentiating within the deep storage region. Paper presented to the Symp. on Formation and Evolution of Magma Chambers: Physical and Chemical Processes, 18th IUGGIAVCEI Gen. Assembly, Hamburg, F.R.G., August 1983.     

The Natash alkaline volcanic field,Egypt: geochemical and mineralogical inferences on the evolution of a basalt to rhyolite eruptive suite

Extensive lava flows were erupted during the Upper Cretaceous in the Wadi Natash of southern Egypt. The lavas are mainly of alkaline (sodium dominated) composition and include alkali olivine basalt (AOB), hawaiite, mugearite, and benmoreite that intruded with acidic volcanics of trachytic to rhyolitic composition. Abundances of major oxides and trace elements including the REE vary systematically through this compositional spectrum. The gradual decrease of CaO with decreasing MgO is consistent with the dominance of phenocrysts of labradoritic plagioclase (An_75–62) and Mg-rich olivine (Fo_84–80) in the AOB and hawaiite. Olivine phenocrysts are normally zoned with cores consistent with crystallization from a magma having the bulk-rock composition. The sharp decrease of alkalis at low MgO contents (∼0.4% MgO) indicates significant alkali feldspar fractionation during the evolution of trachytes and rhyolites. All Natash lavas show steep chondrite-normalized REE patterns with considerable LREE/HREE fractionation and a regular decrease in La/Lu ratios from the least to the most evolved lavas (La/Lu_n=12.5−9.5). The low absolute abundances of HREE in basic members reflects residual garnet in the source. The basic lavas have experienced compositional modifications after they segregated from the source as evidenced by lower averages of Mg^# (51), Ni (134) and Cr (229) in the AOB. Much of this variation can be explained by variable degrees of polybaric fractional crystallization. Petrographic and geochemical data supported by quantitative modelling suggest the evolution of the Natash Lavas from a common AOB parent in multiple, short-lived magma chambers. In agreement with the phenocryst mineralogy of the Natash lavas, the geochemical models suggest that with increasing degree of differentiation, Mg-rich olivine, calcic plagioclase, and augite are joined and progressively substituted by ferrohedenbergite, alkali feldspars and magnetite. The OIB (ocean island basalt)-like nature of the AOB and hawaiite lavas suggests that the volumetrically dominant source component is the asthenospheric mantle. A mantle-plume source is suggested for the Natash basaltic lavas, with the lavas being generated by partial melting of a garnet peridotite in the asthenosphere.     

Garibaldi group volcanic rocks of the salal creek area, southwestern British Columbia: Alkaline lavas on the fringe of the predominantly calc-alkaline garibaldi (cascade) volcanic arc

The Salal Creek area, at the north end of the main group of vents for the Quaternary Garibaldi (Cascade) Volcanic Belt, southwestern British Columbia, was the site of several small eruptions of mafic lava during the past 1 Ma. In contrast to the calc-alkaline character of all other parts of the Garibaldi Belt and the geographically nearly coincident Miocene and older Pemberton Volcanic Belt, the Salal Creek area Quaternary lavas are predominantly alkaline basalt and hawaiite with typical alkaline volcanic petrography, chemistry, and fractionation trends. Trace elements Ti-Zr-Y show within-plate character for the suite. As for other Garibaldi Belt volcanic rocks, Rb is low, Rb/Sr very low, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio is low, averaging 0.7032. The oxygen isotopic composition average, ¹⁸O = 5.9, is normal for mantle-derived volcanic rocks.This distinct change in magma type at the end of a volcanic are may be the consequence of a smaller degree of melting, melting at a slightly greater depth than calc-alkaline magma production, or a descending-plate edge effect.Ponded flows and pillow-palagonite accumulations indicate that several Salal Creek area eruptions occurred in proximity to ice which filled major valleys during pre-Wisconsin glacial periods.     

Petrological notes on the 1983 lavas at Mount Etna,Sicily, with reference to their REE and Sr—Nd isotope composition

The 1983 hawaiite of Mount Etna was sampled and analyzed for groundmass and mineral compositions, rare-earth-element concentrations and Sr-Nd isotope ratios.Microprobe data for coexisting mineral phases and glass show crystallization temperatures of around 1100° C from a rather differentiated hawaiite magma at rather highfO₂ (10^–8 at 1100° C), well above the QFM buffer.The hawaiites are characterized by a marked enrichment in the light REE similar to other alkaline magmas: the (Ce)_N/(Yb)_N is greater than 10, a feature these hawaiites have in common with alkaline magmas erupted earlier on Mount Etna. Since the Ce/Yb ratio cannot be affected by fractionation of clinopyroxene and plagioclase, it is taken as an accurate reflection of the LREE-enriched nature of the hawaiites. From this point of view, the Etnean hawaiites are identical to within-plate alkaline magmas erupted on the Hawaiian islands.This similarity extends to the Nd-Sr isotope features. Two hawaiites have⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr=0.70346 and 0.70352 and¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd=0.51286 and 0.51284. These data indicate a source similar to oceanic-island basalts, a source depleted in Rb/Sr and Nd/Sm for some period of time. The Sr isotope data are identical to that previously reported for Mount Etna.Extraction of hawaiites from depleted source regions requires either recent enrichment events, mixing of asthenospheric and lithospheric melts, or variable degrees of melting. At present, the data do not allow a clear decision.The peculiar tectonic setting of Mount Etna, between the relatively undeformed African foreland and the active Aeolian volcanic islands, may suggest contributions to the source region from subduction and within-plate processes. Etnean lavas have a geochemical imprint of subduction-related enrichment processes, and they also share petrological and chemical features identical to oceanic-island basalts whose source region has been affected by within-palte enrichment processes.Paper read at the IAVCEI Scientific Assembly, Giardini Naxos, September 16–21, 1985     

Missing ophiolitic rocks along the Mae Yuam Fault as the Gondwana–Tethys divide in north-west Thailand

Abstract Thailand comprises two continental blocks: Sibumasu and Indochina. The clastic rocks of the Triassic Mae Sariang Group are distributed in the Mae Hong Son–Mae Sariang area, north‐west Thailand, which corresponds to the central part of Sibumasu. The clastic rocks yield abundant detrital chromian spinels, indicating a source of ultramafic/mafic rocks. The chemistry of the detrital chromian spinels suggests that they were derived from three different rock types: ocean‐floor peridotite, chromitite and intraplate basalt, and that ophiolitic rocks were exposed in the area, where there are no outcrops of them at present. Exposition of an ophiolitic complex denotes a suture zone or other tectonic boundary. The discovery of chromian spinels suggests that the Gondwana–Tethys divide is located along the Mae Yuam Fault zone. Both paleontological and tectonic aspects support this conclusion.     

Geology and K-Ar dating of the Tuxtla Volcanic Field,Veracruz, Mexico

The Tuxtla Volcanic Field (TVF) is located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Volcanism began about 7 my ago, in the Late Miocene, and continued to recent times with historical eruptions in ad 1664 and 1793. The oldest rocks occur as highly eroded remnants of lava flows in the area surrounding the historically active cone of San Martín Tuxtla. Between about 3 and 1 my ago, four large composite volcanoes were built in the eastern part of the area. Rocks from these structures are hydrothermally altered and covered with lateritic soils, and their northern slopes show extensive erosional dissection that has widened preexisting craters to form erosional calderas. The eastern volcanoes are composed of alkali basalts, hawaiites, mugearites, and benmoreites, with less common calc-alkaline basaltic andesites and andesites. In the western part of the area, San Martín Tuxtla Volcano and its over 250 satellite cinder cones and maars produced about 120 km³ of lava over the last 0.8 my. A ridge of flank cinder cones blocked drainage to the north to form Laguna Catemaco. Lavas erupted from San Martín and its flank vents are restricted to compositions between basanite and alkali basalt. The alignment of major volcanoes and flank vents along a N55°W trend suggests an extensional stress field in the crust with a minimum compressional stress orientation of N35° E. In total, about 800 km³ of lava has been erupted in the TVF in the last 7 my. This gives a magma output rate of about 0.1 km³/1000 year, a value smaller than most composite cones, but similar to cinder cone fields that occur in central Mexico. Individual eruptions over the last 5000 years had volumes on the order of 0.1km³, with average recurrence intervals of 600 years. The alkaline compositions of the TVF lavas contrast markedly with the calc-alkaline compositions erupted in the subduction-related Mexican Volcanic Belt to the west, leading previous workers to suggest that the TVF is not related to subduction. Trace-element signatures of TVF lavas indicate, however, that they are probably related to subduction. We suggest that the alkaline character of the TVF lavas is the result of low degrees of melting of a mantle source coupled with a stress regime that allows these small-volume melts to reach the surface in the TVF.     

The strontium isotopic composition of seawater,and seawater-oceanic crust interaction

The⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of seawater strontium (0.7091) is less than the⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of dissolved strontium delivered to the oceans by continental run-off (～0.716). Isotope exchange with strontium isotopically lighter oceanic crust during hydrothermal convection within spreading oceanic ridges can explain this observation. In quantitative terms, the current⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of seawater (0.7091) may be maintained by balancing the continental run-off flux of strontium (0.59 × 10¹² g/yr) against a hydrothermal recirculation flux of 3.6 × 10¹² g/yr, during which the⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of seawater drops by 0.0011. A concomitant mean increase in the⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of the upper 4.5 km of oceanic crust of 0.0010 (0.7029–0.7039) should be produced. This required⁸⁷Sr enrichment has been observed in hydrothermally metamorphosed ophiolitic rocks from the Troodos Massif, Cyprus.The post-Upper Cretaceous increase in the strontium isotopic composition of seawater(～0.7075–0.7091) covaries smoothly with inferred increase in land area. This suggests that during this period the main factor which has caused variability in the⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of seawater strontium could have been variation in the magnitude of the continental run-off flux caused by variation in land area. Variations in land area may themselves have been partly a consequence of variations in global mean sea-floor spreading rate.     

87Sr/86Sr ratios for basalt from Loihi Seamount,Hawaii

⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of 15 samples of basalt dredged from Loihi Seamount range from 0.70334 to 0.70368. The basalt types range from tholeiite to basanite in composition and can be divided into six groups on the basis of abundances of K₂O, Na₂O, Rb and Sr and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio. The isotopic data require that the various basalt types be derived from source regions differing in Sr isotopic composition. The Loihi basalts may be produced by mixing of isotopically distinct sources, but the tholeiites and alkalic basalts from Loihi do not show a well-developed inverse trend between Rb/Sr and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr that is characteristic of the later stages of Hawaiian volcanoes such as Haleakala and Koolau.     

Geochemistry and tectonic setting of alkaline volcanic rocks in the Antarctic Peninsula: A review

The numerous Miocene-Recent alkaline volcanic outcrops in the Antarctic Peninsula form a substantial volcanic province, the least well-known part of a major belt of alkaline volcanism that extends between South America and New Zealand. The outcrops consists mainly of aa and pahoehoe lavas and hyaloclastites which locally contain accidental nodules of spinel lherzolite and other mantle-derived lithologies. The province is predominantly basaltic with two major differentiation lineages: (1) a sodic series of olivine and alkali basalt, hawaiite, mugearite, trachy-phonolite and trachyte; and (2) a relatively potassic, highly undersaturated series of basanite, tephrite and phono-tephrite. All the lavas show varying effects of fractionation by crystallization of olivine and clinopyroxene, joined by plagioclase in the hawaiites to trachytes. Fractional crystallization can probably explain most of the chemical variation observed within each outcrop, but variable partial melting is necessary to account for the differences in incompatible element enrichment between the two series, and between the individual outcrops. The degree of partial melting may not have exceeded 3%, as is the case for many other alkaline magmas.The volcanism is an intraplate phenomenon but there is no correlation in timing between the cessation of subduction and the inception of alkaline volcanism. The activity cannot be related to the passage of the coupled Pacific-Antarctic plate over a stationary mantle hot-spot. Although the precise causal relationship with tectonic setting is unknown, regional extension was a prerequisite for giving the magmas rapid access to the surface.     

The relationship between calc-alkaline volcanism and within-plate continental rift volcanism: evidence from Scottish Palaeozoic lavas

Lower Carboniferous lavas from the Midland Valley and adjacent regions of Scotland are mildly alkaline and intraplate in nature. The sequence is dominated by basalt and hawaiite, although mugearite, benmoreite, trachyte and rhyolite are also present. Basic volcanic rocks display the LIL element and LREE enrichment typical of intraplate alkali basalt terrains. Low initial⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.7029–0.7046), high ε_Nd (−0.4 to +5.6) and moderately radiogenic²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb (17.77–18.89) ratios are also comparable with alkali basalts from other continental rifts and oceanic islands.When the Carboniferous lavas are compared with subduction-related lavas of Old Red Sandstone age, erupted in and around the Midland Valley ca. 50 Ma earlier (at 410 Ma) remarkable similarities are apparent. Significant overlap occurs in Nd and Pb isotopic compositions. Sr isotopic compositions are, however, more radiogenic in the older subduction-related lavas. This, combined with high K and Rb concentrations in ORS lavas may be explained by the incorporation of a sediment component derived from the subducted slab, which by Lower Carboniferous times had been lost from the mantle source region by convection. A pronounced negative Nb anomaly in the ORS subduction-related lavas may be explained by the retention of a Nb-bearing phase in the mantle during hydrous melting of the mantle wedge above the subduction zone.Allowing for the effects of the added component from the subducted slab, there appears to be no necessity to invoke separate mantle source regions for the two suites of lavas: both may have been derived from chemically similar portions of mantle. If volcanic arc lavas are derived from the mantle wedge, the implication is that such a source lies at relatively shallow depth within the upper mantle: the same may therefore apply to the Carboniferous continental rift basalts. This evidence, combined with the fact that there is no evident hot-spot trail across the Midland Valley despite a long period of within-plate volcanism and rapid plate movements during the Carboniferous, suggests that the alkali basalt magmatism is not the product of a deep-seated mantle plume. Rather, the volcanism appears to owe more to passive rifting and to diapiric upwelling from a source region within the uppermost mantle.     

Quantitative evaluation of fractional crystallization in Bouvet Island lavas

Bouvet Island, situated near the southernmost end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, is characterized by lavas ranging in composition from hawaiite through mugearite and benmoreite to rhyolite. Major and trace elements vary systematically throughout the sequence, as do mineral compositions, and geochemical modelling indicates that the compositional variations observed in the differentiated lavas can be ascribed to extensive fractional crystallization of a parental hawaiite magma. Following this scheme the hawaiite parent magma experienced approximately 44% fractional crystallization of plagioclase + clinopyroxene + olivine + opaque oxides and minor apatite to give rise to the mugearite magma, which in turn experienced a further 69% fractional crystallization of the same phase assemblage (though with more evolved compositions) to give rise to the Bouvet Island rhyolite. Extensive fractional crystallization (64%), possibly separated in time, of the parental hawaiite gave rise to the benmoreite magma. In the latter scheme the fractionating phases are similar both in composition and proportion to those crystallizing in the passage from hawaiite to mugearite, suggesting that the Bouvet Island hawaiites correspond in composition to a six phase (plag + of + cpx + Fe-Ti oxide + ap+ lq) saturation surface and that the more differentiated lavas resulted from differing degrees of crystallization on this surface.     

Asymmetric back-arc spreading, heat flux and structure associated with the Central Volcanic Region of New Zealand

The Central Volcanic Region of New Zealand is an active back-arc basin developed within continental lithosphere, and therefore offers a rare opportunity to study back-arc extension from land-based observations. Two parameters related to the heat output from the Central Volcanic Region are of particular interest. Firstly, the average heat flow for the eastern half of the Central Volcanic Region is about 800 mW/m²—in order to maintain this heat flow over geological time periods an efficient mass-transfer of heat is required. Secondly, the observed asymmetry in the pattern of heat output, coupled with the tectonic erosion of blocks of continental crust from the eastern axial ranges into the Central Volcanic Region, suggests that the process currently in progress at the eastern margin of the Region is asymmetric spreading with concomitant thermal differentiation of continental crust into its silicic and basic components.     

Garnet clinopyroxenite xenolith from Dish Hill,California

A single garnet clinopyroxenite xenolith found at the Dish Hill basanite cone near Ludlow, California, has well developed unmixing and reaction textures like those found in garnet pyroxenite inclusions in Hawaiian, African and Australian basalts and like those of pyroxenites in some European alpine peridotites. Reconstructed pyroxene compositions suggest that before unmixing the rock consisted of clinopyroxene and about 10% garnet plus spinel, but all of the garnet may have been dissolved in clinopyroxene. Most or all of the garnet formed by exsolution from clinopyroxene and by reaction between clinopyroxene and spinel in an open system. Following exsolution, the rock was deformed and partly recrystallized in the solid state. Similarity of compositions of exsolved and recrystallized minerals suggests recrystallization at P-T conditions similar to those of exsolution.The rock is not the chemical equivalent of the host basanite and cannot represent magma of basanitic composition crystallized in the mantle. Its history of deformation and recrystallization, like that of accompanying spinel lherzolite inclusions, supports the idea that the garnet clinopyroxenite is an accidental inclusion derived from the upper mantle.