Geochronologic and isotopic study of the La Désirade island basement complex: Jurassic oceanic crust in the Lesser Antilles? |
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| Authors: | James M Mattinson L Kenneth Fink Jr Clifford A Hopson |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, 93106, Santa Barbara, California, USA
2. Department of Oceanography, University of Maine, 04573, Walpole, Maine, USA
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| Abstract: | La Désirade, a small island east of Guadeloupe, is underlain by the only exposed pre-Tertiary basement rocks in the Lesser Antilles. The basement complex comprises spilitic and keratophyric flows and pillow lavas (with interbedded and overlying radiolarian cherts), swarms of mafic to silicic dikes, and subjacent plagiogranite. These features, and the absence of carbonates, terrigenous clastic sediments, or tuffaceous sediments from the complex indicate that it developed in a deep marine environment beyond the reach of terrigenous sedimentation or emergent island arc pyroclastic deposition. Previous workers have suggested that the Désirade basement complex originated either as oceanic crust or during an early (tholeiitic) stage of island arc growth. The isotopic compositions of Sr and Pb from the complex, and previously reported rare earth data (Johnston and Schilling, 1974) do not provide a clear distinction between these two possibilities. Nor does the presence of siliceous keratophyre in the complex rule out an oceanic crustal origin-such rocks are common in well studied ophiolites that originated as oceanic crust. Hence we turn to the age relationships of the complex, the surrounding ocean floor, and adjacent island arcs in an attempt to resolve this problem. The age of the complex strongly supports an oceanic crustal (ophiolitic) origin. The ages of zircons and a previously reported K-Ar age indicate that the complex is 145±5 m.y. old. The complex predates the next oldest volcanic rocks of the Lesser Antilles arc by ca. 110 m.y., and the oldest known rocks of the Aves Ridge, a possible Mesozoic precursor of the Lesser Antilles arc, by 50–60 m.y. This makes it unlikely that the Désirade complex is related to an early phase of either of these arcs. Instead, the age of the complex falls in the range of ages expected for oceanic crust in the vicinity of the Lesser Antilles prior to the development of any subduction zone and resulting arc. Thus we interpret the Désirade complex to be an uplifted segment of oceanic crust that represents the basement on which the later island arcs grew: first the Aves Ridge, an arc that was active in middle to late Cretaceous time (but whose exact mode of origin is enigmatic, and is considered in four alternate tectonic models), then the Eocene to Recent Lesser Antilles arc. |
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