REE Variations Across the Peninsular Ranges Batholith: Implications for Batholithic Petrogenesis and Crustal Growth in Magmatic Arcs

Rare earth element (REE) patterns of plutonic rocks across theCretaceous Peninsular Ranges batholith vary systematically westto east, transverse to its long axis and structural trends andgenerally parallel to asymmetries in petrologic, geochronologicand isotopic properties. The batholith can be ivided into threedistinct parallel longitudinal regions, each defined by distinctREE pattern types. An abrupt transition occurs between rockswith slightly fractionated REE patterns in the western (coastal)region and rocks with middle to heavy REE fractionated and depletedpatterns in the central region. Further to the east a secondtransition to strongly light REE enriched rocks occurs. Theslopes of the REE patterns within each of these regions arelargely independent of rock type. The first REE transition isclosely coupled to regional discontinuities in other parameters:elimination of negative Eu anomalies, an increase in Sr content,and a marked restriction in petrologic diversity. This transitionoccurs over a range of initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and ¹⁸O values,but approximately correlates to a major shift in the emplacementstyle of the batholith from a stationary arc to a rapidly eastward-migrating(cratonward) arc. The sense of the regionally consistent REE trends cannot beexplained by crystallization, assimilation, combined crystallization-assimilation,or mixing processes. The consequences of assimilation and high-leveldifferentiation are not observed generally, despite the sensitivityof the REE to these processes. Geochemical and petrologicalfeatures argue that the partial melting of mafic source rocksin which plagioclase-rich (gabbroic) residual assemblages abruptlygave way laterally and downward to garnet-bearing (eclogitic)residual assemblages produced all the changes associated withthe first REE transition. The change in residual assemblagesfrom gabbroic to eclogitic was superimposed on source regionsalready zoned in light REE abundances, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹⁸O. Temperatureand pressure constraints on the source regions place them ina subcrustal location. The calcic nature of the batholith andthe dominance of tonalite and low-K²O granodiorite in all itsregions argue that the source materials are broadly basalticin composition. Experimental studies are consistent with thegeneration of the abundant tonalitic magmas by the partial meltingof basalt under both low and high pressure conditions. Arc basaltssuch as those commonly erupted in modern island arcs and continentalmargins are inferred to have provided much of the source materialand the heat. Additional high-¹⁸O components are needed in themore easterly source regions. These materials must be distributedso as to contribute equally to the range of magmas that occurin a given local region, and must preserve the calcic natureof batholithic sources. Altered basalts of ancient oceanic crustand possibly their associated metasediments, previously incorporatedinto the lithosphere beneath the continental margin during earliercycles of subduction, most readily satisfy these constraints. The REE geochemistry of the central and eastern regions of thebatholith differs from that of oceanic island arcs in the presenceof strongly heavy REE depleted and fractionated magmas. A modelis proposed in which arc basalts accumulate beneath a crustallayer. Melting of accumulated material at low pressure producesmagmas of the western region. Where thickening of the basalticunderplate is sufficient to form eclogitic assemblages, eclogite-derivedmagmas of the central and eastern region are produced. The abrupttransition to eclogite-derived magmas that suggests a processdriven by a density instability is responsible for their origin. The Peninsular Ranges batholith appears to be representativeof a major differentiation process in which mantle-derived basaltis remelted, contributing its more sialic fractions to the continentalcrust and leaving its mafic to ultramafic residues in the mantle.This process preserves the sialic character of the continentalcrust and may play a significant role in its growth and evolution.The batholith and the processes that produced it may be a moreappropriate basis than immature oceanic island arcs on whichto construct models of continental growth and evolution.