Volcanic facies, structure, and geochemistry of the marginal basin rocks of central Peru

Abstract

The western part of the Mesozoic Peruvian Trough, the Huarmey Basin, has a fill of pillow lavas, sheet lavas, hyaloclastites, tuffs and minor cherts, siliceous and calcareous oozes. Maximum subsidence occurred in the Albian when 9000 meters of basin fill accumulated. This was later intruded by gabbros and dikes and then the Coastal Batholith. The basin is an extensional marginal basin continuous with other basins of similar age to the south. Facies analyses indicate that the basin was relatively deep, with no continental influx, and not dissimilar to spreading and off-axis systems on the ocean floor. Structures at the surface and at depth indicate the crust has split and the basin was floored by mantle material. The basin shows a marked polarity, with tholeiitic basaltic rocks at the center and high-K acid rocks at the eastern margin, with intermediate types between. These changes in petrology and chemistry relate to lateral changes in source composition. Secular variations are also present and indicate a calcalkali source giving way to a more MORB-like source with a variable continental component. The basin is part of the major rifting event in the Cretaceous which affected the whole western margin of South America and was an important and necessary precursor to major batholith intrusion.