Abstract
The Sarmiento and Tortuga complexes are two mafic complexes located in southern Chile that represent the remnants of the mafic portion of the floor of an Early Cretaceous extensional back-arc basin. Basaltic dikes and lavas within each complex exhibit tholeiite differentiation trends whereby FeO*, FeO*/MgO, TiO2, P2O5, Zr, and Y increase together without significant increases in SiO2. In both complexes, as FeO*/MgO increases, REE abundance increases without significant change in Ce/Yb ratio, but with an increasing negative Eu anomaly. The Sarmiento complex contains intermediate icelandites and silicic dikes and lavas which are conspicuously absent in the Tortuga complex. These non-basaltic compositions have higher Zr, Y and REE contents than the associated basalts, but similar Ce/Yb ratios, suggesting co-genetic origin. Thick cumulate gabbro sequences in both complexes suggest shallow level crystal-liquid fractionation as a major cause of the observed wide range of chemical variations.
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