Prolonged Mantle Melting Revealed in the Curaçao Lava Formation: Implications for the Origin of the Caribbean Plateau
Abstract
The Curaçao Lava Formation (CLF), a ~5 km thick section of submarine-erupted lava flows, hyaloclastites, dikes and sills, provides a ~30 Ma record of the magmatic processes involved in the formation of the Caribbean Large Igneous Province (CLIP). The CLF presents ol-tholeiitic and picritic compositions, exposed along the southern transform margin of the CLIP, that are typical of other in situ and tectonized pieces of this ocean plateau. The wide range of recently acquired 40Ar-39Ar ages (62 to 93 Ma) obtained for the Curaçao lavas contradicts previous proposals that the CLF formed over a relatively short period (1-2 million years), but is similar to extended volcanic histories recorded in Haiti (Dumisseau Fm) and at the Beata Ridge. Petrochemical modeling using MELTS indicates that the CLF rock compositions could have formed by fractional crystallization of high-MgO parental magmas with broadly similar major element contents, generated during multiple melting events over this prolonged period. The persistently flat rare earth element patterns in rocks spanning the full age range of the CLF can be reproduced by 10-30% partial melting of a predominantly depleted mantle source with a minor enriched component. The geochemical and age data and modeling results are consistent with a mantle dynamic model for the CLIP in which lateral displacement of mantle plume head material beneath the Caribbean plateau results from subduction-driven mantle flow, which allows for the generation of magmas from a continuously replenished mantle source over approximately 30 million years. While no subduction influence is seen in CLF compositions, the island does record intrusive, arc-related rocks.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.V13F2675K
- Keywords:
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- 1009 GEOCHEMISTRY Geochemical modeling;
- 1100 GEOCHRONOLOGY;
- 1065 GEOCHEMISTRY Major and trace element geochemistry;
- 1037 GEOCHEMISTRY Magma genesis and partial melting