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Ancient lithospheric source for Quaternary lavas in Hispaniola

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 554–557 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fragments of ancient continental lithosphere, entrained in the shallow oceanic mantle, have been found in a number of locations in the Southern Hemisphere1,2,3,4, including rare arc settings5. Lavas erupted in these locations exhibit Pb isotopic characteristics that are similar to the so-called enriched mantle 1 reservoir1, one of the end-members that define the isotopic composition of the Earth’s mantle. However, no lavas with isotopic signatures resembling enriched mantle 1 have been identified in the Caribbean region. Here we present isotopic analyses for mafic-alkaline lavas from Quaternary volcanic centres in Hispaniola. We identify unusual isotopic characteristics indicating the presence of a mantle component similar to enriched mantle 1 beneath Hispaniola. Furthermore, we find evidence for an involvement of this mantle component in the genesis of spatially associated calk-alkaline lavas. On the basis of these isotopic systematics we estimate that the mafic-alkaline lavas are derived from an ancient lithospheric fragment with affinities to the supercontinent Gondwana. We conclude that the fragment originated from the Grenvillian terranes of Central America and Mexico, which also have affinities to Gondwana6, indicating that Hispaniola interacted tectonically with these terranes.

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Figure 1: Present-day map of the Caribbean region; tectonic features after refs 11, 13.
Figure 2: Extended trace-element patterns for the MA (black) and CA (grey) series compared with lamproite from Leucite Hills8.
Figure 3: Present-day Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes.
Figure 4: Present-day Pb isotopes for MA and CA compared with possible sources in the region.

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Acknowledgements

This work would not be possible without the initial field and laboratory studies of P. Vespucci and W. Wertz. Fieldwork by J.F.L. was funded by the National Science Foundation Latin American Cooperative Program and Dirección General de Minería and assisted by geology students from the Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra. Special thanks to P. Mueller for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and for introducing G.D.K. to Precambrian geology. G.D.K. was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation during the early stages of this work. We would like to thank the editor, H. Langenberg, for handling of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for providing comments.

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Author notes

  1. Adam R. Goss & Ricardo Arévalo Jr

    Present address: Present addresses: ExxonMobil Development Company, Angola/Congo DEV-GP6-755, Houston, Texas 77060, USA,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA

    George D. Kamenov, Michael R. Perfit & Adam R. Goss

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Science, The George Washington University, Washington DC 20052, USA

    John F. Lewis

  3. Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

    Ricardo Arévalo Jr

  4. Department of Geography and Geology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska 68182, USA

    Robert D. Shuster

  5. Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 699.0, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA,

    Ricardo Arévalo Jr

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Contributions

G.D.K., M.R.P. and J.F.L. wrote the paper; M.R.P. and J.F.L. collected the samples and G.D.K., M.R.P., R.A., R.D.S and A.R.G. carried out the analyses. All authors provided scientific input during the data interpretation and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to George D. Kamenov, Adam R. Goss or Ricardo Arévalo Jr.

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Kamenov, G., Perfit, M., Lewis, J. et al. Ancient lithospheric source for Quaternary lavas in Hispaniola. Nature Geosci 4, 554–557 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1203

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