Petrology and Geochemistry of Abandoned Spreading Center Lavas Off Baja California: Implications for Intraplate Magmatism in Eastern Pacific

Abundant volcanism at active spreading centers is caused by adiabatic decompression melting of the upper mantle, but the origin of volcanism at abandoned spreading centers is an enigma. Guadalupe Island and Sara, Rosana, Rosa, and Nithya seamounts are volcanoes built on abandoned spreading centers between 26°N and 29°N in the eastern Pacific offshore Baja California. Lava samples from these volcanoes comprise predominantly of mildly to moderately alkalic basalts and their differentiates. Relative to mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) from the East Pacific Rise (EPR), they have higher abundances of incompatible elements and higher highly/moderately incompatible trace element ratios (e.g., Ba/Zr ~1.3). These lavas have enriched REECH patterns, with light REE enrichment up to 300X chondrites. These trace element characteristics combined with their moderately radiogenic Sr, Nd and Pb isotopic compositions indicate they originated from a geochemically enriched mantle source. In detail, the lavas have a moderate range of composition that overlaps with those of lavas from another spreading center (Davidson Seamount) and nearby seamounts (e.g., Pioneer, Rodriguez) offshore southern California and tholeiitic to alkalic seamounts near the EPR. Together, these intraplate lavas define a compositional continuum ranging from MORB-like to ocean island basalt (OIB)-like. In the case of abandoned spreading centers, the 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd compositions of Sara, Rosana and Nithya seamount lavas greatly overlap with those of EPR seamount lavas, but those of Rosa seamount and Guadalupe Island lavas are within the HIMU field for OIB. Thus our results suggest that volcanism at abandoned spreading centers and intraplate volcanism in eastern Pacific as a whole result from a complex interplay between mantle melting dynamics and lithospheric tectonic processes.