Early Pleistocene volcanism in the Emile Baudot Seamount, Balearic Promontory (western Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

The recovery of calcareous breccia and other carbonate-cemented rocks from Mont dels Oliva in the Balearic Promontory indicates that both this seamount and the adjacent Mont Ausias Marc, east of Ibiza and Formentera islands, are of continental origin. Recent multibeam echosounder mapping and high-resolution seismic reflection profiles indicate that the third high, Emile Baudot Seamount, is located within a field of more than 118 pinnacles. Based on their magnetic signature and the recovery of basalt in the vicinity of the pinnacles suggest that the features are of volcanic origin. A basalt sample dredged from Emile Baudot Seamount indicates an igneous origin for this seamount. The limited sampling, the chemistry of the rock recovered and the size of the seamount itself (18 by 3 km), however, does not preclude the possibility that Emile Baudot may be a fractured uplifted continental block intruded by the basalt. The K/Ar age of 1.46±0.18 my yielded by the basalt sample verifies the earlier proposal by Acosta et al. (Mar. Pet. Geol. 128 (2001a) 349) that the volcanism that created part or all of Emile Baudot Seamount and the Southwest Majorca Volcanic Field associated with the seamount took place in the Pleistocene. This volcanism is probably related to decompression resulting from the normal faulting that led to the subsidence of the low (Central Depression) between Ibiza and Majorca (Balearic Islands).