Lower Cretaceous tholeiitic dyke swarms from the Ponta Grossa Arch (southeast Brazil): Petrology, Sr-Nd isotopes and genetic relationships with the Paraná flood volcanics

Abstract

The Lower Cretaceous dykes of the Ponta Grossa Arch, the most important dyke swarms in Brazil, are associated with the flood basalts and rare acid flows of the northern Paraná basin. The Ponta Grossa (PG) dykes are formed by two-pyroxene tholeiites and rare acid rocks. The basaltic dykes may be distinguished into two main groups: a dominant, high-TiO 2 (> 2 wt.%; HTi) group and a subordinate, low-TiO 2 (< 2 wt.%; LTi) group, characterized, for similar MgO content, by high and low incompatible-element contents, respectively. Most PG dykes do not show chemical and isotope evidence supporting important crustal contamination. PG dykes with ( 87 Sr 86 Sr ) 0 < 0.7060 plot in the mantle array ( ϵ Sr ≈ + 17 and ϵ Nd ≈ −3) and can be considered virtually uncontaminated. Intra-dyke chemical variations suggest that the normal or reverse differentiation trends may be related to pre-emplacement low-pressure differentiation processes. The important chemical differences between incompatible-element-poor and incompatible-element-rich basaltic dykes cannot be accounted for in terms of fractional crystallization, but are compatible with different melting degrees of a garnet peridotite mantle source, e.g. 9% and 20% melting for the HTi and LTi tholeiites, respectively. Field distribution of the magmatism, chemistry and Sr-Nd isotope compositions support that the PG dykes may be related to the flood volcanics of northern Paraná, and not to those of the central and southern Paraná. Paleomagnetic data indicate that PG dykes are younger than the Paraná volcanics. All the results suggest that PG dykes were probably feeders of the stratoid volcanics erupted in northern Paraná towards the continental margin and later eroded. Chemistry and isotopic data reveal that asthenospheric mantle components were not significant factors in the genesis of PG dykes. Dyke emplacement occurred during early phases of rifting and/or flexuring cutting flood volcanic suites.