The Pali Aike Volcanic Field, Patagonia: slab-window magmatism near the tip of South America
Abstract
The Pali Aike Volcanic Field (PAVF) represents the southernmost occurrence of the Cenozoic back-arc Patagonian Plateau Lavas. Its activity (Pliocene-Recent) started forming tabular lavas followed by the growth of about 470 essentially monogenetic volcanic centers (tuff-rings, maars, spatter and scoria cones). Azimuths of cone alignment, cone elongation and morphologic lineations show prevailing ENE-WSW and NW-SE trends. Erupted products consist mainly of alkaline basalt and basanite, with minor olivine basalt. PAVF rocks are quite primitive in composition (average Mg#=66, Ni=220 ppm and Cr=313 ppm) with relatively high TiO 2 (average 3.0 wt.%). Ultramafic garnet- and/or spinel-bearing xenoliths are found within PAVF volcanics. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns are significantly LREE-enriched and almost rectilinear [(La/Yb) N=10.9-21.0]. Primordial mantle-normalized distributions of incompatible trace elements, as well as Sr and Nd isotope ratios ( 87Sr/ 86Sr=0.70317-0.70339, 143Nd/ 144Nd=0.51290-0.51294), show values typical of intra-plate basalts, despite the fact that these rocks occur only 200 km east of the Andean Cordillera. Primary magmas were generated from a fertile garnet-bearing asthenospheric source at P=1.9-2.9 GPa and T=1420-1470°C. The data suggest a geodynamic model that implies sub-slab asthenosphere flow through a slab window, which started opening below this sector of South America 14 m.y. ago as a consequence of the collision of the Chile Ridge with the Chile Trench. The trailing edge of the Nazca Plate crossed below the Pali Aike area at 9-10 Ma, that is 6-5 m.y. before the onset of the volcanic activity. We hypothesize that this time delay resulted from changes in the kinematics of the South America-Scotia transform plate boundary which only allowed the Pali Aike magmas to rise after about 4 m.y.
- Publication:
-
Tectonophysics
- Pub Date:
- June 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1016/S0040-1951(00)00082-2
- Bibcode:
- 2000Tectp.321..407D