Early Cretaceous to Eocene magmatic evolution of Livingston Island, South Shetland Archipelago: Geochronological and isotope geochemical constraints from intrusive suites

Abstract

The magmatic products exposed across Livingston Island comprise a part of the South Shetland magmatic arc built on an active continental margin. The main magmatic phases of Livingston Island include the Early to Late Cretaceous plutonic and volcanic rock associations, the Eocene plutons, and some sporadically distributed intrusions of Paleocene to Eocene dykes. The intrusions were emplaced into the strongly deformed turbiditic sedimentary rocks of the Miers Bluff Formation. 40Ar39Ar and zircon UPb geochronologic data presented here define four distinct episodes of intrusive activity represented by the emplacement of the Hesperides (125 Ma), the Cerro Mirador (104–97 Ma), the Siddons Point (80 Ma) and the Barnard Point suites (42 Ma), in addition to some dyke intrusions with emplacement ages of 105 to 40 Ma. The intrusions are represented by mafic to intermediate compositions characterized by middle potassic, calc-alkaline affinities, with only a few samples from the Eocene activity exhibiting tholeiitic character. Trace element, Sr-Nd-Pb isotope and zircon Hf isotope variations indicate magma generation in a subduction setting with extensive involvement of continental crust-derived melts for the Early to Late Cretaceous activity. The effects of crustal input on melt chemistry appear to have diminished in time, especially from the Paleocene onwards, leading to magma generation with typical oceanic island arc geochemical signatures. This change in melt chemistry is likely partly related to the roll-back induced overriding plate extension which resulted in a time-integrated increase in the rate of melt movement and a decrease in the residence time in crustal levels. Slab steepening caused by the systematic decrease in plate convergence rate led to an enhanced involvement of isotopically depleted mantle component, producing a heterogeneous source with variable subduction signature.