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Assimilation-fractional crystallization of Polvadera Group rocks in the northwestern Jemez Volcanic Field, New Mexico

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Abstract

Pliocene Polvadera Group rocks in the northwestern Rio Grande rift-marginal portion of the Jemez Volcanic Field record the rapid transition from weakly alkaline Lobato Basalt magmatism (48–52% SiO2; 7.9 Ma) through calc-alkaline Lobato andesite and dacite (53–64% SiO2) and Tschicoma dacite-rhyodacite magmatism (63–69% SiO2; 7.4 Ma). Petrologically, Lobato andesite and dacite and Tschicoma dacite-rhyodacite represent a cogenetic suite of differentiates (the La Grulla Plateau or LGP suite) distinctive from the bulk of Polvadera Group rocks including Tschicoma andesite. Increasing (87Sr/86Sr)O ratios with differentiation within the LGP suite from 0.7051 (54% SiO2) to 0.7064 (68% SiO2), trace element variations, and disequilibrium mineral assemblages suggest open system differentiation involving 87Sr-enriched upper crust. A likely parental magma is the voluminous Lobato Basalt ((87Sr/86)O= 0.7043–0.7050) which was erupted predominantly earlier and to the east toward the rift axis. The best model for petrogenesis involves bulk assimilation of locally wide-spread Proterozoic (1.4–1.6 Ga) upper crustal granite by fractionally crystallizing Lobato Basalt. Assimilation-fractional crystallization (AFC) modeling of Sr-isotope and trace element variation (DePaolo 1981) indicates that ∼40% crystallization of Lobato Basalt accompanied by ∼10% addition of granite reproduces the observed geochemical and Sr-isotopic diversity. Neither magma mixing, nor mafic recharge have complicated the magmatic evolution of the LGP suite. Crustal thickness and/or retarded tectonism could have facilitated conditions necessary for evolution by AFC to occur within the upper crust.

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  1. Bradley S. Singer

    Present address: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, 82071, Laramie, WY, USA

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  1. Department of Geology, University of New Mexico, 87131, Albuquerque, NM

    Bradley S. Singer & Albert M. Kudo

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Singer, B.S., Kudo, A.M. Assimilation-fractional crystallization of Polvadera Group rocks in the northwestern Jemez Volcanic Field, New Mexico. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 94, 374–386 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371445

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