Cryptic alkaline magmatism in the oceanic Caribbean arc (Camagüey area, Cuba)

Abstract

Mid and Late Cretaceous arc-related basaltic rocks in the Camagüey area, East Central Cuba, record an intriguing seemingly random enrichment in alkalis that suggests alkaline affinity, representing an oddity in the Greater Antilles. In this study, the petrology and geochemistry of volcanic rocks from the Camujiro, Piragua and La Mulata Formations have been investigated. The rocks bear a diverse mineral assemblage including feldspars (plagioclase and potassium feldspar), clinopyroxene, phlogopite and amphibole with both equilibrium and disequilibrium textures. Clinopyroxene porphyritic crystals show conspicuous oscillatory and convolute zoning and reveal events of mafic recharge and crystallization in equilibrium with alkaline and calc-alkaline basaltic magmas and their mixtures. Composition of fluorophlogopite xenocrystals is consistent with crystallization from mafic alkaline liquids. Unlike whole-rock major element composition, immobile trace element abundances suggest a systematic calc-alkaline affinity. Chondrite-normalized rare-earth element (REE) patterns are similar to those of calc-alkaline and high-K (and [sbnd]Th) calc-alkaline rocks from the Caribbean Antilles. Geochemical modelling indicates that the parental basic magmas formed by a 5–10% hydrous partial melting of spinel-facies depleted mantle fluxed by fluids evolved from subducted oceanic crust and pelagic sediments, as well as fractional crystallization. Random enrichment in alkalis in studied samples is attributed to the entrainment during ascent of material derived from mafic alkaline melts injected in the upper mantle or the root of the island-arc. Our new data establish a mature stage in the evolution of the Caribbean island-arc by Cenomanian times capable of sourcing alkaline melts and the existence of a thickened island arc crust that favored fractional crystallization and magma chamber recharge processes unlike in previous stages of the island-arc construction.