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Granites and rhyolites from the northwestern U.S.A.: temporal variation in magmatic processes and relations to tectonic setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Marc D. Norman ,
William P. Leeman  and
Stanley A. Mertzman
Marc D. Norman
Affiliation:
Marc D. Norman, Planetary Geosciences, Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology,University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, U.S.A.
William P. Leeman
Affiliation:
William P. Leeman, Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251, U.S.A.
Stanley A. Mertzman
Affiliation:
Stanley A. Mertzman, Department of Geology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Cretaceous and Cainozoic granites and rhyolites in the northwestern U.S.A. provide a record of silicic magmatism related to diverse tectonic settings and large-scale variations in crustal structure. The Late Cretaceous Idaho Batholith is a tonalitic to granitic Cordilleran batholith that was produced during plate convergence. Rocks of the batholith tend to be sodic (Na2O > K2O), with fractionated HREE, negligible Eu anomalies, and high Sr contents, suggesting their generation from relatively mafic sources at a depth sufficient to stabilise garnet. In contrast, Neogene rhyolites of the Snake River Plain, which erupted in an extensional environment, are potassic (K2O > Na2O), with unfractionated HREE patterns, negative Eu anomalies, and low Sr contents, suggesting a shallower, more feldspathic source with abundant plagioclase. Eocene age volcanic and plutonic rocks have compositions transi- tional between those of the Cretaceous batholith and the Neogene rhyolites. These data are consistent with a progressively shallowing locus of silicic magma generation as the tectonic regime changed from convergence to extension.

Keywords

graniterhyoliteIdaho BatholithSnake River PlainCretaceousCainozoic
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 83 , Issue 1-2: Second Hutton Symposium: The Origin of Granites and Related Rocks , 1992 , pp. 71 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1992

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