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Magmatic Evolution of the Ordovician Snowdon Volcanic Centre, North Wales (UK) |
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| Authors: | THORPE R S; LEAT P T; MANN A C; HOWELLS M F; REEDMAN A J; CAMPBELL S D G |
| Institution: | 1Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK 2Department of Geological Sciences, Science Laboratories South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK 3Church Farm, Hutton Henry, County Durham TS27 4RR, UK 4British Geological Survey, Bryn Eithyn Hall, Llanfarian, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 4BY, UK |
| Abstract: | The Ordovician Snowdon Volcanic Centre (SVC) of North Walescomprises a bimodal basalt–subalkaline/peralkaline associationemplaced around a caldera within a shallow marine environment.The tectonic setting was associated with closure of the LowerPalaeozoic Iapetus Ocean and cessation of ocean plate subduction.The SVC volcanic products include basaltic lavas and pyroclasticrocks, rhyolitic pyroclastic flow deposits, high-level intrusions,domes, and flows, together with reworked equivalents. A programmeof detailed field mapping, sampling, and chemical analysis hasbeen used to evaluate the structure and magmatic evolution ofthe SVC volcanic system. SVC basalts show a range in chemicalcharacteristics between volcanic arc type and within-plate,ocean island basalt (OIB) type. Subalkaline, silica-oversaturatedintermediate intrusions (icelandites) and five chemically distinctgroups of extrusive and intrusive subalkaline/peralkaline rhyolites(termed A1, A2, B1, B2, and B3) were emplaced during the evolutionof the SVC. This evolution was driven by material and thermalinput from basaltic magma. The SVC basaltic lavas were derivedas partial melts from a heterogeneous volcanic arc to OIB-typespinel lherzolite mantle and experienced up to 60% olivine gabbrofractionation during storage in sill networks in the sub-crustor lower crust. Some magma batches experienced further fractionalcrystallization ({small tilde}70%) and minor crustal contamination({small tilde}10%) to yield the icelandites. Trace element andNd isotope data do not favour an origin for the rhyolites bypartial or total fusion of likely crustal material, and thefive rhyolite groups are regarded as distinct homogeneous batchesof magma derived from varied basaltic magmas. The icelanditesand peralkaline rhyolites (group B3) result, respectively, from{small tilde}50% and {small tilde}80–90% zircon-free fractionalcrystallization of SVC basalts. The subalkaline rhyolites (groupsA1 and B1) result from {small tilde}80–90% fractionalcrystallization of subduction-related basalts similar to thoseof Ordovician basalts which pre-date the Lower Rhyolitic TuffFormation, and groups A2 and B2 were formed by mixing and homogenizationof A1, B1, and B3 magma batches. These data and interpretationsprovide the basis of a model for the complex evolution of asilicic magma system below the SVC caldera around the time ofcessation of Caledonian subduction in North Wales. Rhyolitemagma chambers were short lived and discontinuous; the largestwas probably disc shaped and was almost entirely evacuated duringa >60-km3 ash-flow eruption. |
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