Petrogenesis and Origins of Mid-Cretaceous Continental Intraplate Volcanism in Marlborough, New Zealand: Implications for the Long-lived HIMU Magmatic Mega-province of the SW Pacific

• Published in: Journal of Petrology
• Main Authors: McCoy-West, Alex J., Baker, Joel A., Faure, Kevin, Wysoczanski, Richard
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2010
• Subjects: Original Papers; Pacific; New Zealand; Lookout; Dy; The Lookout; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ocean Island
• Online Access: http://petrology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/51/10/2003; https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology/egq046

Continental intraplate basalts with a HIMU-like mantle signature in the SW Pacific (e.g. New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica) have been erupted over an area of ∼25 million km2 sporadically over the last c . 100 Myr. This long-lived HIMU signature has recently been ascribed to both melting in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle and the asthenospheric mantle. The Lookout Volcanics represent the oldest samples of this HIMU magmatic mega-province and are remnants of extensive mid-Cretaceous (98 Ma) intraplate volcanism preserved in South Island, New Zealand, which occurred prior to the rifting of Zealandia from Gondwana. We have carried out a detailed petrographic, chemical and isotopic study of the Lookout Volcanics based on sampling of a 700 m composite stratigraphic section that comprises predominantly mafic alkaline rocks. Initial Sr–Nd–Hf–Pb isotopic variations (87Sr/86Sr = 0·7030–0·7038; 143Nd/144Nd = 0·51272–0·51264; 176Hf/177Hf = 0·28283–0·28278; 206Pb/204Pb = 20·3–18·8) are explained by mixing between melts of a HIMU-like mantle source and up to 22% of Early Cretaceous upper crust. Oxygen isotope data for six lava flows yielded δ18O olivine = 4·7–5·0‰, δ18O cpx cores = 4·8–5·4‰ and δ18O cpx rims = 3·9–5·5‰. Average olivine and clinopyroxene core values are in oxygen isotopic equilibrium and comparable with data for phenocrysts from HIMU ocean island basalts. Oxygen isotopic disequilibrium between clinopyroxene cores and rims records phenocryst growth in a shallow magma chamber interacting with an active meteoric water system. The scavenging of such phenocrysts suggests that volcanic phenocrysts with low δ18O cannot always be used as a mantle fingerprint of recycled crustal components with low δ18O. Clinopyroxene and plagioclase phenocrysts from the most evolved sample have elevated δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr consistent with crustal contamination. Variations in incompatible trace element ratios (e.g. La/Yb N = 12·5–20·2; Dy/Yb N = 1·90–2·20) are consistent with small degrees ( c . 2–4%) of partial melting of an ...