Generation of Arc-Like and OIB-Like Magmas Triggered by Slab Detachment in the Eastern Mexican Alkaline Province: Petrological Evidence from the Cenozoic Sierra de San Carlos-Cruillas Complex, Tamaulipas

Abstract

The origin of the Eastern Mexican Alkaline Province has been explained by landward arc migration and subsequent asthenospheric upwelling after slab roll-back of the Farallon Plate. In this work, we present new petrographic, mineral chemical, geochemical, and geochronological data of the Sierra de San Carlos-Cruillas (SSCC), one of the most important complexes in the province. This information, together with published data, helped us to reinterpret the tectonic processes operating during the generation of this province, as well as the mantle sources involved in the partial melting process. Detailed geochemical analysis suggests the participation of two types of metasomatized mantle regions: a lithospheric source modified by past subduction processes and an asthenospheric source slightly affected by carbonatite-related metasomatism. Variations in the partial melting degrees controlled the extent of magma enrichment in the latter. Major and trace element geochemistry, together with geochronological data and field relations, evinced an older post-orogenic setting related to the arc-like rocks (Eocene) and a younger intraplate extensional environment associated with all enriched igneous rocks (Oligocene-Miocene). Bivariate diagrams of SiO2-trace element ratios and multi-element patterns indicate that magmas from the SSCC complex dominantly evolved through fractional crystallization with a limited crustal contribution. Petrographic and mineral chemistry features suggest that some of these magmas experienced open-system processes (e.g. recharge events) in a complex and dynamic magmatic feeding system. In contrast to the traditional petrotectonic model, we propound that the passage and subsequent foundering of the Hess conjugate under northeastern Mexico resulted in its eclogitization and triggered slab tearing and succeeding detachment. This latter process occasioned mantle upwelling and the partial melting of the two recognized metasomatized mantle sources, thus generating the San Carlos-Cruillas magmatism.