The Late Cretaceous igneous rocks of Romania (Apuseni Mountains and Banat): the possible role of amphibole versus plagioclase deep fractionation in two different crustal terranes

Abstract

We provide new whole-rock major and trace elements as well as 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd isotopic data of a suite of samples collected in the Late Cretaceous volcanic and plutonic bodies of the Apuseni Mts. (Romania) that belong to the Banatitic Magmatic and Metallogenic Belt, also called the Apuseni–Banat–Timok–Srednogorie belt. The samples define a medium- to high-K calc-alkaline differentiation trend that can be predicted by a three-step fractional crystallization process which probably took place in upper crustal magma chambers. Published experimental data indicate that the parent magma (Mg# = 0.47) of the Apuseni Mts. trend could have been produced by the lower crustal differentiation of a primary (in equilibrium with a mantle source) magma. The Late Cretaceous magmatic rocks of the Apuseni Mts. and Banat display overlapping major and trace element trends except that Sr is slightly lower and Ga is higher in the Apuseni Mts. parent magma. This difference can be accounted for by fractionating plagioclase-bearing (Apuseni Mts.) or amphibole-bearing (Banat) cumulates during the lower crustal differentiation of the primary magma to the composition of the parent magma of both trends. This, together with results obtained on the Late Cretaceous igneous rocks from the Timok area in Eastern Serbia, further suggests variation of the water content of the primary magma along and across the belt. The Apuseni Mts. versus the Banat samples display different isotopic compositions that likely resulted from the assimilation of two distinct crustal contaminants, in agreement with their emplacement in two separate mega-units of Alpine Europe.