The Plutón Diorítico Moat: Mildly alkaline monzonitic magmatism in the Fuegian Andes of Argentina

Abstract

The Pluton Dioritico Moat (Moat Dioritic Pluton, PDM) is the largest of several isolated Cretaceous plutons exposed in the Fuegian Andes of Argentina. It is made of a large variety of rock types ranging from ultramafic bodies (pyroxenites and hornblendites) to syenites. The petrological diversity is thought to have been originated by fractional crystallization of a mantle-derived magma combined with minor assimilation of continental crust (AFC). Its geochemical characteristics indicate a mildly-alkaline monzonitic affinity, contrasting with the typical calc-alkaline plutons of the Southern Patagonian Batholith (PB) to the south, in the Chilean archipelago. The PDM original magma is arc-related and its crystallization, as indicated by the Rb–Sr mineral isochron age of 115 ± 3 Ma, is coeval with some plutons of the PB. Therefore a similar tectonic regime is assumed for the emplacement of these plutonic bodies, both south and north of the Beagle channel. Differences in magma sources and degree of partial melting are inferred to account for the contrasting lithological and geochemical characteristics of the PB and PDM. The data suggest that the original magmas of the PDM were generated at greater depths in the mantle, by a smaller degree of partial melting, compared with the PB. The Barros Arana basalts, exposed to the north in Chile, forming a back-arc volcanic complex, display the same mildly-alkaline shoshonitic affinity, and are considered in this study as the volcanic equivalents of the PDM. All the plutons in the Argentinean Fuegian Andes display similar lithological and geochemical characteristics and are, therefore, grouped in this work under the name of Magmatismo Potasico Fueguino (Fuegian Potassic Magmatism).