Chemistry of miocene plume tholeiites from northwest Iceland

Abstract

The earliest (Miocene) plateau basalts of northwest Iceland form an olivine tholeiite series with elevated contents of Ti, K, P, Rb, Ba and Sr. They are closely similar to ‘plume’ tholeiites of the Faeroes (Paleocene-Eocene) and the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland (Recent) and confirm the Miocene renaissance in northeast Atlantic plume activity previously suggested on geophysical grounds. It is argued that the elevated contents of Ti, K, etc., are due to the ascent in a plume column of high pressure alkalic magmas and their re-equilibration to low pressure olivine tholeiites largely by additional melting at 10–20 km depth and 1150–1300°C. The 1800 m northwest Iceland sequence lacks stratigraphic variation suggesting random extraction from an extensive melt region with a nearly stable range of P-T-chemical conditions.