Tholeiitic, calc-alkaline and (?)alkaline igneous rocks of the Shortland Islands, Solomon Islands

Abstract

The Shortland Islands lie in a northeast-southwest line across the western end of Solomon Islands, immediately adjacent to Bougainville. Three major islands dominate the group. Fauro and surrounding islands, in the northeast, have an altered basement suite comprising tholeiite, icelandite and tholeiitic dacite. This is intruded by a high-level calc-alkaline assemblage of microdiorite, hornblende andesite and rhyodacite and overlain by volcanogenic sandstones derived from an andesitic to dacitic volcano. Pyroclastics comprising high-alumina basalt and pyroxene andesite overlie the volcanogenic sandstones. The tholeiitic basement lavas may be of Late Oligocene to Early Miocene age, and the calc-alkaline rocks are probably also pre-Pliocene in age. Alu, in the centre of the group, also has an altered tholeiitic lava basement, which is intruded by a quartz diorite body and overlain by hypersthene-augite basaltic andesite. Pliocene siltstone and Quaternary shallow marine carbonates cover these igneous rocks over much of the island. Mono, in the southwest, has a small basement exposure of altered pillowed hawaiite, overlain by Miocene pelagic limestone, Pliocene siltstone and Quaternary reef limestone. Isolated clasts of pyroxene andesite and ?benmoreite occur in streams and on beaches. The younger, calc-alkaline suites on all islands were formed in an island arc environment, possibly related to subduction from the southwest beneath the New Britain Trench. The basement lavas on Alu are probably early island arc tholeiites, and both these lavas and the calc-alkaline rocks of Alu share a common trend on variation diagrams. The two igneous suites of Fauro, however, have distinctly different trends. The basement lavas have some chemical similarities with oceanic tholeiites, but an early island arc origin for these lavas cannot be ruled out. The altered hawaiite and benmoreite on Mono probably originated in an oceanic island environment.