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Pleistocene to recent alkalic volcanism in the region of Sanganguey volcano, Nayarit, Mexico

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Abstract

Forty five cinder cones and associated lava flows have erupted within the last 300,000 years along five parallel lines through the calc-alkaline volcano, Sanganguey, in the northwestern segment of the Mexican Volcanic Belt. Lavas erupted from these cinder cones include ne- and hynormative alkali basalts, hawaiites, mugearites, and benmoreites. It is unusual that this suite has erupted in a calc-aikaline volcanic belt where volcanoes in the vicinity have been erupting calc-alkaline andesites, dacites and rhyodacites.

Incompatible trace elements such Ba, Rb, Sr, and LREEs show little change with decreasing Mg, Ni, and Cr in the series alkali basalt to hawaiite, suggesting that simple crystal fractionation of observed phenocrysts has not been the dominant process in the derivation of the hawaiites from the alkali basalts. Petrographic evidence of magma mixing along with observed variation of trace element abundances suggests that the alkali basalts might represent mixtures of primitive magma with more evolved compositions.

Crystal fractionation is capable of explaining major and most trace element trends in the series hawaiite — mugearite — benmoreite. However, such a process could only occur at pressure because of the requirement that clinopyroxene be a major crystallizing phase.

The anomolous association of alkaline magmatism contemporaneously with calc-alkaline magmatism is probably related to the complex tectonic history associated with the rearrangement of plate boundaries in the vicinity of western Mexico.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Tulane University, 70118, New Orleans, LA, USA

    S. A. Nelson

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA

    I. S. E. Carmichael

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  1. S. A. Nelson
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  2. I. S. E. Carmichael
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Nelson, S.A., Carmichael, I.S.E. Pleistocene to recent alkalic volcanism in the region of Sanganguey volcano, Nayarit, Mexico. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 85, 321–335 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01150290

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