Early Cretaceous Basaltic and Rhyolitic Magmatism in Southern Uruguay Associated with the Opening of the South Atlantic

The Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks of southern Uruguay comprisemafic and felsic volcanics. The position of these outcrops atthe southern edge of the Paraná–Etendeka continentalflood basalt province provides an opportunity to investigatepossible lateral variations in both mafic and more evolved rocktypes towards the margins of such an area of plume-related magmatism.The mafic lavas are divided into two compositionally distinctmagma types. The more voluminous Treinte Y Trés magmatype is similar to the low-Ti basalts of the Paraná floodbasalt province. The Santa Lucía magma type is a distinctand rare basalt type with ocean-island basalt type asthenosphericaffinities (high Nb/La, low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_i). The felsic volcanicsare divided into two series, the Lavalleja Series and the AigüaSeries. The Lavalleja Series are chemically and isotopicallysimilar to the Paraná–Etendeka low-Ti rhyolites,and are considered to be related to the Treinte Y Tréslavas by extensive fractionation and crustal assimilation. TheAigüa Series have low ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd_i and low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_i andunlike the rhyolites of the Paraná, are interpreted asmelts of pre-existing mafic lower crust that subsequently underwentextreme fractionation. The differences observed in the felsicsuites may be linked to differences in the volumes of the associatedbasalts and the amounts of extension. KEY WORDS: South America; flood basalts; felsic volcanics; crustal melts; plume