Petrology and chemistry of late Cretaceous volcanic rocks from the southernmost segment of the Western Cordillera of Colombia (South America)

This paper presents new data on the petrology and chemistry of the igneous rocks composing the Mesozoic basement of southernmost Western Cordillera of Colombia along the Ricaurte-Altaquer section. The studied sequence includes variably metamorphosed submarine lavas, breccias, tuffs and dykes of basalt to andesite composition, and minor, shallow quartz microdiorite intrusives. A Campanian age is recorded by radiolarian faunas from chert strata capping the lavas. Two different tholeiitic suites and a younger calc-alkaline suite, represented by hornblende andesite, are distinguished. One tholeiitic suite, represented by plagioclase and pyroxene phyric lavas, evolves from basalt to basaltic andesite. It is characterized by the occurrence of diopsidic pyroxene as early crystallising phase, by depletion in high-field strength elements, particularly Nb and by relative enrichment in light REE and Th. The second tholeiitic suite, which includes aphyric or poorly phyric lavas of basalt to dacite composition, differs from the first group in having moderately low FeOtotMgO ratio and lower P2O5 content for a given SiO2, and higher TiZr and YZr ratios. The pyroxene chemistry of the two suites also differs. imary geochemical characteristics of the two suites suggest a similarity with tholeiitic suites generated in island-arc environment. The hornblende andesite has mineralogical and chemical characteristics of calc-alkaline lavas erupted in an oceanic setting in an evolved island-arc. Petrologic and geochemical evidence suggests that the volcanic rocks from the Ricaurte-Altraquer section are similar to the island-arc tholeiite volcanics from the upper Macuchi Formation of northern Ecuador and can be correlated partly with this unit. Conversely, they are petrochemically dissimilar from the typical Diabase Group volcanic rocks, characterized by transitional MORB lavas, extensively present to the north in the Western Cordillera of Colombia.