Petrography of volcaniclastic rocks in intra-arc volcano-bounded to fault-bounded basins of the Rosario segment of the Lower Cretaceous Alisitos oceanic arc, Baja California, Mexico

Abstract

The Rosario segment of the Early Cretaceous Alisitos oceanic magmatic arc in Baja California displays a record of arc-axis sedimentation and volcanism that is well preserved in outcrops within a southern volcano-bounded and a northern fault-bounded basin that flanked an intervening subaerial edifice. This record includes volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks that range from felsic to mafic in composition. Volcaniclastic/tuffaceous sandstone samples from two previously published measured sections are mainly composed of volcanic clasts with moderate plagioclase content. Locally quartz and/or potassium feldspar are present in trace to moderate amounts. The proportions of volcanic lithic types exhibiting vitric, microlitic, lathwork, and felsitic textures are highly variable with no distinct stratigraphic trends, likely as a function of the mixed styles of eruption and magma compositions that produced pyroclasts, as well as erosion-produced epiclastic debris. The volcaniclastic fill of the basins is consistent with an oceanic arc setting, except for the relatively high felsitic volcanic lithic content, likely associated with subaerial, as opposed to the more common submarine felsic magmatism associated with arc extension in oceanic settings. There are no major differences in compositional modes of tuff and sandstone between the fault-bounded and volcano-bounded basin strata, even though they exhibit distinctly different volcaniclastic facies. This suggests that proximal arc-axis basins of varying types around a single major subaerial edifice provide a faithful record of volcanic trends in the arc segment, regardless of variation in transport and depositional processes.