Geochronology and geochemistry of Early Cretaceous volcanic sequences in Northwestern Peru: implications for Farallon Plate subduction

Abstract

The Early Cretaceous geology of Northwestern (NW) Peru was characterized by emplacement of voluminous felsic volcanic rocks (e.g. the Oyotún Fm.), which have important implications for the understanding of Early Cretaceous crust-mantle interactions in the Central Andes. We present U-Pb-Hf isotopic compositions and whole-rock and trace elemental compositions of a series of Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks from the Western Cordillera and the Eastern Cordillera of the Central Andes. The volcanic rocks outcrop sporadically with limited thickness and uniform volcanic lithofacies in the western region, while the eastern region has distributions of larger scale volcanic rocks with more complex volcanic lithofacies. LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating defines the age of the Oyotún Fm. range from 138.8 Ma to 131.0 Ma in the Western Cordillera, and from 139.7 Ma to 132.3 Ma in the Eastern Cordillera. In situ Hf isotope analysis on dated zircon yield an εHf(t) range of +3.37 to +8.42 and a TDM2(Hf) range from 983 Ma to 650 Ma with a peak at ca. 840 Ma. The Early Cretaceous felsic magmas are predominantly dacites and rhyolites with minor components of basalt and andesite and show relatively homogeneous Hf isotopic compositions of zircon in single samples. Both the εHf(t) of zircons and the magma temperature increase from the bottom to the top of the Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks in each studied area. All these facts imply an increasing contribution of contemporaneous underplated hot and dry mantle-derived magmas with time, both as a heat source inducing crustal melting and a source of material (melt) that variably mixed with the ancient continental crustal materials.