Rhyolitic calderas of the Yukon‐Tanana Terrane, east central Alaska: Volcanic remnants of a Mid‐Cretaceous magmatic arc

Abstract

Four large but poorly exposed rhyolitic calderas are present in the Yukon‐Tanana terrane (YTT) in east central Alaska. At least two are mid‐Cretaceous in age (∼93 Ma). Similar volcanic rocks, the South Fork Volcanics, occur northeast of the Tintina fault in Yukon Territory. Evidence for the calderas consists of thick deposits of de vitrified crystal‐ and lithic‐rich densely welded tuff, interpreted as caldera fill, associated with lava domes or shallow intrusive rocks. Coeval outflow sheets have been largely stripped by erosion. The calderas are preserved within a northeast trending depression extending across the axis of the elongate mid‐Cretaceous plutonic province. Trace element abundances in andesites and rhyolites associated with the caldera structures are similar to those of volcanic and plutonic rocks of subduction‐related magmatic arcs developed on continental crust and thus are suggestive of formation in such an environment. Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary igneous rocks in the YTT near the calderas are interpreted to have been emplaced in a more extensional setting when the subduction‐related magmatic front was farther ocean ward.