Abstract
A fundamental goal of igneous petrology is to quantify the duration of time required to produce evolved magmas following influx of basalt into the crust. However, in many cases, complex field relations and/or the presence of a long-lived magmatic system make it difficult to assess how basaltic inputs relate to more evolved magmas, therefore, precluding calculation of meaningful timescales. Here, we present field relations, geochemistry, 40Ar/39Ar ages, and 36Cl ages for volcanic rocks from the Harrat Rahat volcanic field, Saudi Arabia. These data document a systematic and repeated temporal progression from alkali basalt to trachyte for the youngest eruptives. From ~ 150 to ~ 17 ka the following eruptive sequence occurred four times: (1) alkali basalt, (2) hawaiite, mugearite, or benmoreite, and (3) trachyte. We interpret each eruptive sequence to result from injection of basalt into the crust, and its subsequent differentiation and eruption of progressively evolved magmas. We use the interval time between successive eruptions within a given sequence to calculate the duration of time required to produce trachyte from alkali basalt. Differentiation from alkali basalt to intermediate compositions (hawaiite, mugearite, benmoreite) took ≤ 2 kyr on average. Differentiation from intermediate compositions to trachyte took a maximum of 6.6 ± 3.5 to 22.5 ± 1.6 kyr. Thus, the total duration of differentiation was ~ 9 to ~ 25 kyr. Timescales presented here are insensitive to processes evoked to drive differentiation because they are based solely on the ages and compositions of eruptive products from a system characterized by a simple, repeated differentiation sequence.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by funding from the US Geological Survey and the Saudi Geological Survey. We are grateful to Katie Sullivan, Brandon Swanson, Dean Miller, and James Saburomaru for their invaluable assistance in preparing and analyzing samples for this study, and to Adam Kent, one anonymous reviewer, and editor Tim Grove for their constructive comments and suggestions that helped strengthen this manuscript. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only, and does not imply endorsement by the United States government.
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Communicated by Timothy L. Grove.
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Stelten, M.E., Downs, D.T., Dietterich, H.R. et al. Timescales of magmatic differentiation from alkali basalt to trachyte within the Harrat Rahat volcanic field, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Contrib Mineral Petrol 173, 68 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-018-1495-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-018-1495-9