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    Origin of widespread Cretaceous alkaline magmatism in the Central Atlantic: A single melting anomaly?

    77275.pdf (6.063Mb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Merle, Renaud
    Jourdan, Fred
    Chiaradia, M.
    Olierook, Hugo
    Manatschal, G.
    Date
    2019
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Merle, R.E. and Jourdan, F. and Chiaradia, M. and Olierook, H.K.H. and Manatschal, G. 2019. Origin of widespread Cretaceous alkaline magmatism in the Central Atlantic: A single melting anomaly? Lithos. 342-343: pp. 480-498.
    Source Title
    Lithos
    DOI
    10.1016/j.lithos.2019.06.002
    Additional URLs
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
    ISSN
    0024-4937
    Faculty
    Faculty of Science and Engineering
    School
    School of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS)
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77056
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    © 2019 Elsevier B.V. The age and origin of the Late Cretaceous magmatism on the North American and Iberian-African margins and the adjacent northern Central and Southern North Atlantic ocean are not well constrained due to the lack of appropriate data. To solve this issue, we used the 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopes geochemistry of basalts from the New England Seamounts (NES) and the J-Anomaly Ridge (JAR) as these localities on the North American margin are still poorly investigated. We obtained a reliable age of 82.39 ± 0.12 Ma (2σ) for the Nashville Seamount (NES) and an alteration age of ca. 76 Ma for the JAR. Our new dates from the New England Seamounts, combined with those available from the Tore–Madeira Rise and SW Portugal, on the Iberia–African margins, confirm an overlapping period of activity around 105-80 Ma on both the North American and Iberian-African margins and the adjacent oceanic basins. Plate kinematic reconstructions indicate that these magmatic occurrences were located within a ~1000 km radius within the yet narrow Atlantic Ocean. The J-Anomaly Ridge samples were most likely formed at the mid-Atlantic ridge around ~120 Ma. The Sr-Nd-Pb initial isotopic ratios from the New England seamounts show similarities with the chemical signature of the Tore–Madeira Rise and, to a lesser extent, SW Portugal. Moreover, New England Seamounts display a trend toward EMI isotopic end-member, similar to those documented in at the Late Cretaceous Godzilla seamount on the Tore–Madeira Rise and sills from ODP Site 1276. The shared chemical signature is distributed across a torus-shaped area of ~2000 × 2000 km at a near-fixed location on Earth and is not temporally-controlled, suggesting a large-scale chemical anomaly in the shallow mantle. Therefore, geochronological, geochemical and plate reconstructions imply a large-scale, anomalously fertile mantle source that generated widespread magmatism during the Late Cretaceous in the northern Central Atlantic.

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