Rejuvenescent Volcanism on San Cristóbal Island, Galápagos: A Late "Plumer"

Nestled between the two volcanoes of San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos is a series of curiously young basaltic lava flows. These flows are not vegetated and have well-preserved flow tops, indicating that they are a rejuvenescent phase of volcanism. The young lava region covers 70 km2 of the NW coast and consists of five flow fields from 5 to 17 km2. We report new cosmogenic helium exposure ages that indicate emplacement occurred 9 to 15 ka, and that the surrounding area was active since 174 ka; a hiatus in activity may have occurred between 174 and 15 ka. These dates contrast with the fact that San Cristóbal is one of the oldest islands in the archipelago, with several K-Ar ages >2 Ma. Petrographically, the young lavas are mostly olivine-phyric (1-5 mm, average 5% abundance). Plagioclase phenocrysts are small (<1 mm) and rarely exceed 3% in abundance. Some flows range in their crystal cargo over rather short distances (<30 m). Compositional variation of this small set of young flows encompasses the compositional range exhibited by lavas from across the island. Rare earth element patterns are flat to LREE-enriched, even within the same flow field. Incompatible trace element ratios (e.g., La/Sm) indicate a wide range in extents of melting at relatively shallow depths (e.g., low Sm/Yb), comparable to conditions observed at Floreana Island. Compositions are consistent with a source that is a mixture of Galápagos plume and ancient, recycled oceanic crust (FLO source of Harpp and White, 2001). The contribution from the plume source is notable given the island's location in the eastern archipelago, where plume influence is normally lower than in the western islands. The young lavas are primitive compared to the majority of the archipelago and to other lavas on San Cristóbal, having only crystallized olivine and sparse CPX. These observations are consistent with a model in which melts pass through the crust relatively quickly, without extensive fractionation or homogenization prior to eruption. Because late stage lavas in the Galápagos have similar source compositions to the rest of the island, we propose that the mechanism for rejuvenescent volcanism in the Galápagos differs from that proposed for other ocean island systems, such as Hawai'i.