40Ar/ 39Ar ages for the alkaline volcanism and the basement of Gorringe Bank, North Atlantic ocean

Abstract

Gorringe Bank is situated on the Europe-Africa plate boundary at the eastern end of the Azores-Gibraltar fracture zone. It has two summits, Gettysburg Bank to the Southwest and Ormonde Bank to the northeast. We applied the 40Ar/ 39Ar stepwise heating method to date six samples of the alkaline volcanic rocks, two gabbros from the Ormonde Bank and a dolerite from the Gettysburg Bank. The results that the alkaline volcanism lasted probably for less than 6 Ma(66-60 Ma). Although the nature of this volcanism precludes any subduction feature during its setting, the alkaline volcanism of Ormonde is probably linked to Upper Cretaceous/Eocene compressive tectonic events. The basement rocks of Gorringe Bank reveal distrubed 40Ar/ 39Ar age spectra. One plagioclase and one biotite from a gabbro give evidence for a thermic event whose age is tentatively estimated at about 75 Ma, and related to a variation in the direction of the relative movement between Europe and Africa. The more probable age given by a plagioclase of another gabbro and by a dolerite (110 Ma) corresponds to tilting northeastward of the Gorringe massif.