Magmato-tectonic links: Ignimbrite calderas, regional dike swarms, and the transition from arc to rift in the Southern Rocky Mountains

Peter W. Lipman; Matthew J. Zimmerer

doi:10.1130/ges02068.1

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Magmato-tectonic links: Ignimbrite calderas, regional dike swarms, and the transition from arc to rift in the Southern Rocky Mountains

Peter W. Lipman·Matthew J. Zimmerer

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Abstract

Radial and linear dike swarms in the eroded roots of volcanoes and along rift zones are sensitive structural indicators of conduit and eruption geometry that can record regional paleostress orientations. Compositionally diverse dikes and larger intrusions that radiate westward from the polycyclic Platoro caldera complex in the Southern Rocky Mountain volcanic field (southwestern United States) merge in structural trend, composition, and age with the enormous but little-studied Dulce swarm of trachybasaltic dikes that continue southwest and south for ∼125 km along the eastern margin of the Colorado Plateau from southern Colorado into northern New Mexico. Some Dulce dikes, though only 1–2 m thick, are traceable for 20 km. More than 200 dikes of the Platoro-Dulce swarm are depicted on regional maps, but only a few compositions and ages have been published previously, and relations to Platoro caldera have not been evaluated. Despite complications from deuteric alteration, bulk compositions of Platoro-Dulce dikes (105 new X-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses) become more mafic and alkalic with distance from the caldera. Fifty-eight (58) new 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages provide insight into the timing of dike emplacement in relation to evolution of Platoro caldera (source of six regional ignimbrites between 30.3 and 28.8 Ma). The majority of Dulce dikes were emplaced during a brief period (26.5–25.0 Ma) of postcaldera magmatism. Some northeast-trending dikes yield ages as old as 27.5 Ma, and the northernmost north-trending dikes have younger ages (20.1–18.6 Ma). In contrast to high-K lamprophyres farther west on the Colorado Plateau, the Dulce dikes are trachybasalts that contain only anhydrous phenocrysts (clinopyroxene, olivine). Dikes radial to Platoro caldera range from pyroxene- and hornblende-bearing andesite to sanidine dacite, mostly more silicic than trachybasalts of the Dulce swarm. Some distal andesite dikes have ages (31.2–30.4 Ma) similar to those of late precaldera lavas; ages of other proximal dikes (29.2–27.5 Ma) are akin to those of caldera-filling lavas and the oldest Dulce dikes. The largest radial dikes are dacites that have yet younger sanidine 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages (26.5–26.4 Ma), similar to those of the main Dulce swarm.

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Geosphere Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 36.565245969445655° to 40.432731172362224° latitude; -108.72050712008375° to -104.15019462008387° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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BibTeX RIS

Peter W. Lipman, Matthew J. Zimmerer. 2019-09-30. Magmato-tectonic links: Ignimbrite calderas, regional dike swarms, and the transition from arc to rift in the Southern Rocky Mountains. https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02068.1

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