Contemporaneous eruption of calc-alkaline and alkaline lavas in a continental arc (Eastern Mexican Volcanic Belt): chemically heterogeneous but isotopically homogeneous source

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Nearly contemporaneous eruption of alkaline and calc-alkaline lavas occurred about 900 years BP from El Volcancillo paired vent, located behind the volcanic front in the Mexican Volcanic Belt (MVB). Emission of hawaiite (Toxtlacuaya) was immediately followed by calc-alkaline basalt (Rio Naolinco). Hawaiites contain olivine microphenocrysts (Fo67–72), plagioclase (An56–60) phenocrysts, have 4–5 wt% MgO and 49.6–50.9 wt% SiO2. In contrast, calc-alkaline lavas contain plagioclase (An64–72) and olivine phenocrysts (Fo81–84) with spinel inclusions, and have 8–9 wt% MgO and 48.4–49.4 wt% SiO2. The most primitive lavas in the region (Rio Naolinco and Cerro Colorado) are not as primitive as parental melts in other arcs, and could represent either (a) variable degrees of melting of a subduction modified, garnet-bearing depleted mantle source, followed by AFC process, or (b) melting of two distinct mantle sources followed by AFC processes. These two hypotheses are evaluated using REE, HFSE, and Sr, Os and Pb isotopic data. The Toxtlacuaya flow and the Y & I lavas can be generated by combined fractional crystallization and assimilation of gabbroic granulite, starting with a parental liquid similar to the Cerro Colorado basalt. Although calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas commonly occur together in other areas of the MVB, evidence for subduction component in El Volcancillo magmas is minimal and limited to <1%, which is a unique feature in this region further from the trench. El Volcancillo lavas were produced from two different magma batches: we surmise that the injection of calc-alkaline magma into an alkaline magma chamber triggered the eruption of hawaiites. Our results suggest that the subalkaline and hawaiitic lavas were formed by different degrees of partial melting of a similar, largely depleted mantle source, followed by later AFC processes. This model is unusual for arcs, where such diversity is usually explained by melting of heterogeneous (enriched and depleted) and subduction-modified mantle.