A strontium isotope evolution model for cenozoic magma genesis, Estern Great Basin, U.S.A.

Scott, R.B., Nesbitt, R.W., Dasch, E. Julius and Armstrong, R.L. (1971) A strontium isotope evolution model for cenozoic magma genesis, Estern Great Basin, U.S.A. Bulletin of Volcanology, 35 (1), 1-26. (doi:10.1007/BF02596806).

Abstract

Cenozoic volcanism in the Great Basin is characterized by an outward migration of volcanic centers with time from a centrally located core region, a gradational decrease in the initial Sr87/Sr86 ratio with decreasing age and increasing distance from the core, and a progressive change from calc-alkalic core rocks to more alkalic basin margin rocks. Generally each volcanic center erupted copious silicic ignimbrites followed by small amounts of basalt and andesite. The Sr82/Sr86 ratio for old core rocks is about 0.709 and the ratio for young basin margin rocks is about 0.705. Spatially and temporally related silicic and mafic suites have essentially the same Sr87/Sr86 ratios.

The locus of older volcanism of the core region was the intersection of a north-south trending axis of crustal extension and high heat flow with the northeast trending relic thermal ridge of the Mesozoic metamorphic hinterland of the Sevier Orogenic Belt. Derivation of the Great Basin magmas directly from mantle with modification by crustal contamination seems unlikely. Initial melting of lower crustal rocks probably occurred as a response to decrease in confining pressure related to crustal extension. Volcanism was probably also a consequence of the regional increase in the geothermal gradient that is now responsible for the high heat flow of the Basin and Range Province.

High Sr isotopic ratios of the older core volcanic rocks suggests that conditions suitable for the production of silicic magmas by partial fusion of the crust reached higher levels within the crust during initial volcanism than during production of later magmas with lower isotopic ratios and more alkaline chemistry. As the Great Basin became increasingly attenuated, progressively lower portions of the crust along basin margins were exposed to conditions suitable for magma genesis. The core region became exhausted in low temperature melting components, and volcanism ceased in the core before nearby areas had completed the silicic-mafic eruption cycle leading to their own exhaustion of crustal magma sources.

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