Geochemistry, Sr–Nd isotope composition, and tectonic setting of Holocene Pelado, Guespalapa and Chichinautzin scoria cones, south of Mexico City

Holocene Pelado, Guespalapa and Chichinautzin monogenetic scoria cones and associated lava flows located within the Sierra del Chichinautzin Volcanic Field (SCVF) at the southern margin of Mexico City were mapped and sampled for mineralogical and chemical analyses. With the exception of Parı&#x0301;cutin volcano in western Mexico, few scoria cones in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt have ever been sampled in greater detail. Chemical analyses of rocks indicate that mafic products (e.g. Guespalapa and Chichinautzin) from individual volcanoes in the Sierra del Chichinautzin are characterized by substantial chemical variability, whereas high-silica andesite volcanoes (e.g. Pelado) are very uniform in composition. These findings have important bearings for regional tephrochronology. As a whole, rock compositions form a continuous coherent calc–alkaline suite, explicable by polybaric fractional crystallization±assimilation associated with successive stagnation at different depths along the ascent path. Trace element and Sr–Nd isotope analyses point toward a <1-km-scale heterogeneous (enriched/depleted) mantle wedge underneath the SCVF. The recently proposed plume-origin for these rocks is not in accord with our data. Instead, magma origin is discussed in relation to the tectonically complex subduction process of the oceanic Cocos Plate underneath the continental North American Plate.