Development of continental lithospheric mantle as reflected in the chemistry of the Mesozoic Appalachian Tholeiites, U.S.A.

Abstract

Geochemical analyses of dikes, sills, and volcanic rocks of the Mesozoic Appalachian Tholeiite (MAT) Province of the easternmost United States provide evidence that continental tholeiites are derived from continental lithospheric mantle sources that are genetically and geochronologically related to the overlying continental crust. Nineteen olivine tholeiites and sixteen quartz tholeiites from the length of this province, associated in space and time with the last opening of the Atlantic, display significant isotopic heterogeneity: initial ε Nd = +3.8 to −5.7; initial 87Sr/ 86Sr= 0.7044−0.7072; 206Pb/ 204Pb= 17.49−19.14; 207Pb/ 204Pb= 15.55−15.65; 208Pb/ 204Pb= 37.24−39.11. In Pb Pb space, the MAT define a linear array displaced above the field for MORB and thus resemble oceanic basalts with DUPAL Pb isotopic traits. A regression of this array yields a secondary Pb Pb isochron age of ≈ 1000 Ma (μ 1 = 8.26), similar to Sm/Nd isochrons from the southern half of the province and to the radiometric age of the Grenville crust underlying easternmost North America. The MAT exhibit significant trace element ratio heterogeneity (e.g., Sm/Nd= 0.226−0.327) and have trace element traits similar to convergent margin magmas [e.g., depletions of Nb and Ti relative to the rare earth elements on normalized trace element incompatibility diagrams, Ba/Nb ratios (19–75) that are significantly greater than those of MORB, and low TiO 2 (0.39–0.69%)]. Geochemical and geological considerations very strongly suggest that the MAT were not significantly contaminated during ascent through the continental crust. Further, isotope and trace element variations are not consistent with the involvement of contemporaneous MORB or OIB components. Rather, the materials that control the MAT incompatible element chemistry were derived from subcontinental lithospheric mantle. Thus: (1) the MAT/arc magma trace element similarities; (2) the Pb Pb and Sm/Nd isochron ages; and (3) the need for a method of introducing an ancient (> 2−3 Ga) Pb component into subcontinental mantle that cannot be much older than 1 Ga leads to a model whereby the MAT were generated by the melting of sediment-contaminated arc mantle that was incorporated into the continental lithosphere during arc activity preceding the Grenville Orogeny (≈ 1000 Ma).