The bimodal Wichita igneous province (WIP) represents the only exposed Ediacaran to Cambrian anorogenic magmatic assemblage present along the buried southern margin of Laurentia and was emplaced during rifting in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen prior to Cambrian opening of the southern Iapetus Ocean. Here, we establish the first high-precision U-Pb zircon geochronological framework for the province. Weighted mean 206Pb/238U dates from mafic and felsic rocks in the Wichita Mountains indicate emplacement in a narrow time frame from 532.49 ± 0.12 Ma to 530.23 ± 0.14 Ma. Rhyolite lavas in the Arbuckle Mountains farther east yield weighted mean 206Pb/238U dates of 539.20 ± 0.15 Ma and 539.46 ± 0.13 Ma. These dates for the WIP indicate that magmatism in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen postdated the ca. 540 Ma rift-drift transition along the Appalachian margin to the east. Wholerock trace-element and isotopic geochemistry, supplemented by trace elements in zircon, tracks the evolution of magma sources during WIP petrogenesis. These data indicate that initial melting and assimilation of subcontinental mantle lithosphere by an uprising mantle plume were followed by increasing involvement of asthenospheric melts with time. We suggest that upwelling of this plume in the area of the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen triggered an inboard jump of the spreading center active along the eastern margin of Laurentia, which led to separation of the Precordillera terrane (now located in Argentina) from the Ouachita embayment present in the southern Laurentian margin.
Many rhyolites contain quartz crystals with relatively Ti-rich rims and Ti-poor cores, with a sharp interface between zones, attributed to partial dissolution followed by overgrowth following a heating event due to mafic recharge of the system. Quartz crystals in the compositionally zoned, high-silica rhyolite Tshirege Member of the Bandelier Tuff, erupted at 1.26 Ma from the Valles caldera, New Mexico, show a range in zoning styles with Ti-rich rims becoming more abundant upwards in the ignimbrite sheet among progressively less evolved magma compositions. Here we compare times between quartz overgrowth and eruption obtained by applying Ti diffusion coefficients to Ti concentration profiles in Tshirege Member quartz crystals with those from cathodoluminescence (CL) brightness profiles, and show that panchromatic CL provides only a crude proxy for Ti in quartz in this unit. Titanium concentrations are measured to detection limits of ~1.2 ppm with small analytical errors (<5%) This is the peer-reviewed, final accepted version for American Mineralogist, published by the Mineralogical Society of America. The published version is subject to change. Cite as Authors (Year) Title. American Mineralogist, in press.
The 1.26 Ma Tshirege Member of the Bandelier Tuff is the second of two major (~ 400 km 3 , dense rock equivalent) compositionally zoned rhyolitic eruptions from the Valles caldera. Here we analyze 25 samples of a minor component of compositionally and texturally variable silicic dacite pumice (~ 67 to 72% SiO 2 ) that is widely distributed through the unit. The dacite has a phenocryst assemblage dominated by feldspar and hornblende and is presumed to be a recharge magma. Quenching of dacite against cooler rhyolite, melting of rhyolitic crystal mush, and mixing between dacite and rhyolite contributed to textural complexity. The dacite can be broken into three petrographic pumice types resulting from different degrees of dacite-rhyolite interaction. The earliest stage in the history of the dacite discernable from mineral chemistry, thermobarometry and hygrometry is mid-crustal storage at temperatures close to 900 °C and water content ~ 5 wt%. Plagioclase zoning suggests that the dacite was subject to more mafic recharge at this stage. The dacite was then injected into rhyolitic crystal mush at temperatures between 700 and 800 °C and pressures ~ 0.3 GPa. Consequences of mixing with mushy rhyolite include the following: (1) cooling and partial crystallization of dacite; (2) growth of large, dendritic feldspars with ternary compositions; (3) ingestion of and melting of feldspar and quartz from the rhyolitic mush; (4) enrichment in fluorine due to melting of biotite in the mush; (5) enrichment in light REE contents in some samples due to melting of chevkinite-rich domain(s) in the mush; (6) second boiling of quenched dacite rendering it buoyant and distributing dacite 'enclaves' through the zoned rhyolite magma column. The dacite was likely injected into the rhyolite over a protracted period and eventually triggered the Tshirege eruption.
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