The isotopic composition of strontium in Central American ignimbrites

Voluminous sheets of rhyolitic ignimbrites were crupted during Miocene time in a region of Central America that is underlain by a thick sequence of middle Paleozoic and older metamorphic and plutonic rocks. Strontium isotopic ratios of fifteen ignimbrites range from 0.7035 to as high as 0.7175. These values are markedly higher than those measured for cale-alkaline lavas of the same province, but overlap the range found in basement rocks that may have served as source rocks for anateetic magmas. This relationship is in contrast to that found in the western United States where siliceous ignimbrites are not significantly richer in radiogenic strontium than are the basalt erupted through the same basement series. Several possible models for the origin of the large volumes of siliceous magma are examined in terms of major-element and isotopic relations, experimental studies of phase relations, and the thermal requirements of melting or assimilating basement rocks. A mathematical model for the effects of assimilation in open and closed systems permits a comparison of predicted chemical and isotopic compositions with those observed and places limits on the plausibility of various schemes of contamination with or without concurrent crystal fractionation. None of the models is without its flaws. Recent suggestions that large volumes of siliceous magma may be derived from the mantle or lower crust explain certain aspects of the Central American ignimbrites very well if one postulates that the high strontium ratios resulted from contamination of the magma with radiogenic strontium released by the break-down of mieas in basement rocks through which the magmas rose. Such a model fails to explain the apparent restriction of large rhyolitic ignimbrite cruptions to areas underlain by thick continental crust.