XVIII Congreso Geolgico Argentino, Mayo 2011, Neuqun

UN MODELO ALTERNATIVO PARA LA GNESIS DE LA PROVINCIA MAGMTICA SOMN CUR Marcela B. Remesal, Mara Elena Cerredo y Flavia M. Salani
CONICET- Departamento de Ciencias Geolgicas, FCEN-UBA, remesal@gl.fcen.uba.ar

Somn Cur magmatic province, northern Patagonia, Argentina, is an impressive volcanic field with a voluminous plateau stage, mainly Oligocene, dominated by basalts and basaltic andesites tholeiitic to transitional, with relationships between elements LIL/LRE (Ba/La > 15, to 40) and 87Sr/86Sr > 0.7043, Nd < +1.3 (unpublished data, Kay et al., 2007; Remesal and Parica, 1989) which show the contribution of an arc component. During the early Miocene, is recorded the post-plateau volcanic stage, which involves various associations: Large alkaline complexes characterized by the bimodal association basalttrachyte/rhyolite (in the mountains of Agua de la Piedra, Chauchaunieu, Talagapa, Apas, Telsen), grouped within the Superunit Quielaf (Franchi et al., 2001; Remesal et al. , 2001), with depleted isotope compositions (87Sr/86Sr: 0.7034-0.7046; Nd: +0.9 to +4.5) regarding the plateau event (Kay et al., 2007) and Ba/La: 15-30 (Kay et al., 2007; Remesal et al. 2004 and unpublished data). The alignment of these complexes along a strip of WNW-ESE orientation has been attributed to the control of a structure that affects the areas emerged and the continental shelf of the northern extra-Andean Patagonia (Salani et al., 2010). Subalkalic volcanic manifestations either as monogenetic centers distributed within the plateau (Trayen Niyeu, 87Sr/86Sri: 0.70467, Salani et al, 2006) or as basic to acidic facies that occur in varying proportions, in complexes bimodal (87Sr/86Sri: 0.7089, Salani and Parica, 1990) with average ratios Ba/La: 14-43 (unpublished data). Restricted expressions of ultrapotassic magmatism, undersaturated characterized by associations of potassic trachytes and leucitites, radiogenic enriched (87Sr/86Sr: 0.70725, Nd: -3 to -4; Ba/La < 10, Corbella, 1999). Events plateau and post-plateau Oligocene-Miocene of Somn Cur are partially contemporaneous with the drastic reorganization of plates in the Pacific margin of the South American plate resulting from the breakup of the Farallon plate, with modification of vector convergence along the Andean margin oblique to near normal (Cande and Leslie, 1986; Somoza, 1998). In this geodynamic context have submitted several proposals to explain the large volumes of basalts erupted: transient thermal anomaly in the mantle (Kay et al., 1993) associated with disintegration of the subducted slab (Kay et al, 2007); asthenospheric window on the subducting plate (Muoz et al., 2000), shallow asthenospheric rise caused by a concave geometry of the subducted slab (de Ignacio et al., 2001). It has also proposed that, linked to reorganization of plates in the Pacific margin to the South American plate, would have produced the rise of the mantle transition zone resulting in hydrated melts that would have interacted with lithospheric mantle previously metasomatized by ancient subduction processes, leading to Somn Cur magmatism (Honda et al., 2006, Orihashi et al., 2010). While the models that appeal to hot spots in the mantle in the context of extra backarc, with varying influence of the subduction zone, do not explain satisfactorily the overall features of Oligocene/Miocene magmatism of Somn Cur, we share the idea that magma genesis of this province is not unrelated to the active processes on the western edge of the South American plate.

Seismic tomography surveys in northern Patagonia indicate that during the Paleogene, there was a break in the regime of subduction due to detachment of the Aluk plate (Aragon et al. 2009). The Pacific margin of South America was then dominated by a movement of transcurrent type (Somoza and Ghidella 2005) to ~ 25 Ma when the rupture of the Farallon plate led to a drastic change to a subduction with near-normal convergence vectors to the plate boundary (Somoza, 1998). Although the subduction regime would have reinstated by the end of Oligocene, tectono-thermal flow in the supra-subduction zone was restored only after the middle Miocene (Aragon et al., 2009). Given this regional context, we propose that the event trigger widespread OligoceneMiocene melting of the Somn Cur magmatic province would be linked to a process of lithospheric delamination. It is recognized that detachments of portions of lithosphere may promote the generation of large volumes of magma even reaching sizes of continental basaltic provinces (Elkins-Tanton et al., 2006, Elkins-Tanton, 2007). Restite nature of the South-American lithosphere of the northern extra-Andean Patagonia (resulting from Jurassic crustal melting process that led to the Chon Aike volcanic province s.l.; (Pankhurst et al., 2000 and references therein) have favored gravitational instability processes initiated by plates reorganization in the Pacific margin. The post-Jurassic lithosphere of the North-Patagonian Massif is more dense than the northern lithosphere undisturbed by crustal melting process and was probably more dense than the underlying asthenospheric mantle, then being a potential candidate for lithospheric delamination processes. To detach part of the dense North-Patagonian lithosphere, the shallow mantle would have ascended and generated partial melts by adiabatic decompression. ****The proposed process does not require a heat source outside the system lithosphere / asthenosphere and mantle plumes model, this model includes a pre-doming magmatism which there is no evidence in the northern extra-Andean Patagonia. In contrast, magmatism linked to lithospheric delamination processes can be synchronous with subsidence topography, (Elkins-Tanton, 2005, 2007). For its part, the passage plate Aluk under the province of Somuncura Cur would injected fluids in the subduction zone and hot melts in the mantle shallower producing the dual effect ascending temperature and hydrate the lithosphere North Patagonia. Thus, the decline of the lithospheric viscosity, delamination processes have favored due to ductile instabilities Rayleigh-Taylor (Elkins-Tanton, 2005). At the same time, the processes of dehydration / partial melting experienced by the plate Aluk have given the symbol recognized arc episodes and post-plateau plateau of Somuncura Cura. The proposed model, with the diversity of potential sources and lithospheric slab involved (Elkins Tanton, 2005, 2007) could explain satisfactorily the variability lithological / geochemical / isotopic identified (Corbella, 1999, Kay et al., 2007, Salani 1990), Cura Somuncura magmatic province.
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