Plagioclase-free andesites from Zit�cuaro (Michoac�n), Mexico: petrology and experimental constraints

Abstract

Approximately 150 km west of Mexico City in the central part of the Mexican Volcanic Belt (MVB) near Zitacuaro, Mexico, young volcanism has produced shield volcanoes, large volume silicic deposits, and fault-related basalt and andesite lava flows and cinder cones. This paper concerns a small cluster of Pleistocene andesite cones and flows which can be separated into two distinct groups: high-magnesium andesites (>6% MgO, 57–59% SiO2), conveniently called basaltic andesites, with phenocrysts of orthopyroxene and augite, or augite and olivine; and andesites (60–62% SiO2, 3 wt%) at pressures of about 1 kbar. Compared to basaltic andesites of western Mexico, the Zitacuaro basaltic andesites have ∼2 wt% lower Al2O3 concentrations, which causes plagioclase to precipitate at significantly lower temperatures, and it therefore follows the crystallization sequence: olivine, augite, and orthopyroxene. Based on ubiquitous quartz xenocrysts, with glassy rhyolitic inclusions, a reasonable conclusion is that substantial mixing of a quartz-bearing rhyolitic magma with a parental basaltic andesite has occurred at low pressure (shallow depth), and this would account for the low Al2O3 concentrations in the Zitacuaro basaltic andesites. Whatever the mechanism of incorporation, the quartz xenocrysts are evidence of contamination of basaltic magma with more siliceous material, thus making it difficult to use these magmas as indicators of mantle melting processes.