The Santa Fe Intrusion and Other Magmatic Bodies Under the Chichón Volcano Area (Mexico): Inferences from Aeromagnetic and New Petrologic-Geochronologic Data

Abstract

We review the current knowledge of the Pleistocene Modern Chiapanecan Volcanic Arc (MCVA). This arc is related to the subduction of the Cocos plate beneath the North American plate in the State of Chiapas, southeastern Mexico. The MCVA consists of large intrusive bodies, domes, eroded volcanic landforms, and the active El Chichon, which produced the disastrous 1982 eruption, the deadliest in Mexico’s recorded history. The available geological knowledge, and new geological and aeromagnetic data on the arc, reveals a system composed of a sizeable intrusive body called the Santa Fe diorite, and small-size volcanoes such as El Chichon and Catedral, and extinct volcanoes associated with volcaniclastic deposits. A 3D-inversion of the aeromagnetic anomalies indicates that the Santa Fe diorite is a large intrusive body (27 km long, 4 km wide with a minimum volume of 1662 km3) while small volcanoes such as El Chichon have small-size magma chambers (~ 7 km3). Interestingly, our models of the causative bodies for the aeromagnetic anomalies suggest that the El Chichon volcano, as well as of other volcanic areas in the region, are not linked directly to the Santa Fe intrusive. However, new 40Ar/39Ar dates for samples from the Santa Fe intrusive (2.2 Ma), the Catedral volcano (1.6 Ma), and a mafic enclave (1.09 Ma) hosted in 1982 Chichon deposits, along with the aeromagnetic anomalies and geochemical data confirm that these extrusive and intrusive structures belong to the MCVA. The chemistry of these structures suggests that magmas generated in the upper mantle by the subduction system evolved through different processes, such as crustal contamination for the Santa Fe diorite and Catedral volcano, and crystal fractionation for El Chichon volcano.