Quaternary lavas from the southern Cascades, western U.S.A.

Abstract

A series of basaltic and andesitic lavas from three centers in the Cascades (Lassen, Medicine Lake, Mt. Shasta) have been investigated. The lavas are weakly porphyritic, containing phenocrysts of plagioclase, augite, and olivine or orthopyroxene; these phases are also found in the groundmass. Titanomagnetite is a groundmass phase in most lavas but it appears to be absent in some. A sub-calcic augite is found in the groundmass in some of the basic lavas. Orthopyroxenes are present only in the salic lavas and show an increase in calcium with increasing iron. The range in composition shown by both phenocryst and groundmass plagioclase is very similar except that the phenocrysts extend to slightly more calcic compositions. The residual glasses in many of the lavas have a rhyolitic composition. However, only those from the Shasta andesites have normative salic constituents that plot near the ternary minimum in the Ab-Or-Qtz system at 500 bars. Both chemical and mineralogical data allow the lavas of the different centers to be distinguished from one another. The most likely origin for the orogenic lavas of the Cascades is by partial melting of the upper mantle.