Lead isotopic evidence for evolutionary changes in magma-crust interaction, Central Andes, southern Peru

Abstract

Lead isotopic measurements were made on Andean igneous rocks of Jurassic to Recent age in Moquegua and Tacna Departments, southernmost Peru, to clarify the petrogenesis of the rocks and, in particular, to investigate the effect of crustal thickness on rock composition. This location in the Cordillera Occidental is ideal for such a study because the ca. 2 Ga Precambrian basement rocks (Arequipa massif) have a distinct Pb isotopic signature which is an excellent tracer of crustal interaction, and because geomorphological research has shown that the continental crust was here thickened drastically in the later Tertiary. Seven samples of quartz diorites and granodiorites from the Ilo and Toquepala intrusive complexes, and seven samples of Toquepala Group subaerial volcanics were analyzed for Pb isotopic compositions. The plutonic rocks range in age from Jurassic to Eocene; the volcanic rocks are all Late Cretaceous to Eocene. With one exception, the Pb isotopic ratios are in the ranges 206Pb/ 204Pb= 18.52–18.75, 207Pb/ 204Pb= 15.58–15.65, and 208Pb/ 204Pb= 38.53–38.74. The data reflect very little or no interaction with old continental material of the Arequipa massif type. Lead from four Miocene Huaylillas Formation ash-flow tuffs, two Pliocene Capillune Formation andesites and five Quaternary Barroso Group andesites has lower 206Pb/ 204Pb than that in the pre-Miocene rocks, but relatively high 207Pb/ 204Pb and 208Pb/ 204Pb ( 206Pb/ 204Pb= 18.16–18.30, 207Pb/ 204Pb= 15.55–15.63, 208Pb/ 204Pb= 38.45–38.90). Tilton and Barreiro [9] have shown that contamination by Arequipa massif granulites can explain the isotopic composition of the Barosso Group lavas, and the new data demonstrate that this effect is evident, to varying degrees, in all the analysed Neogene volcanic rocks. The initial incorporation of such basement material into the magma coincided with the Early Miocene uplift of this segment of the Cordillera Occidental [32], and thus with the creation of a thick crustal root. The data strongly imply a relationship between crustal thickness and degree of crustal contamination of magmas in this area, but a rigorous relationship is not yet established.