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A co-investigation of mantle melting conditions and seismic structure revealed an evolutionary record of mantle dynamics accompanying the transition from subduction to collision along the Africa-Eurasia margin and the >1 km uplift of the Anatolian Plateau. New 40Ar/39Ar dates of volcanic rocks from the Eastern Taurides (southeast Turkey) considerably expand the known spatial extent of Miocene-aged mafic volcanism following a magmatic lull over much of Anatolia that ended at ca. 20 Ma. Mantle equilibration depths for these chemically diverse basalts are interpreted to indicate that early to middle Miocene lithospheric thickness in the region varied from ∼50 km or less near the Bitlis suture zone to ∼80 km near the Inner Tauride suture zone. This southward-tapering lithospheric base could be a vestige of the former interface between the subducted (and now detached) portion of the Arabian plate and the overriding Eurasian plate, and/or a reflection of mantle weakening associated with greater mantle hydration trenchward prior to collision. Asthenospheric upwelling driven by slab tearing and foundering along this former interface, possibly accompanied by convective removal of the lithosphere, could have led to renewed volcanic activity after 20 Ma. Melt equilibration depths for late Miocene and Pliocene basalts together with seismic imaging of the present lithosphere indicate that relatively invariant lithospheric thicknesses of 60–70 km have persisted since the middle Miocene. Thus, no evidence is found for large-scale (tens of kilometers) Miocene delamination of the lower lithosphere from the overriding plate, which has been proposed elsewhere to account for late Miocene and younger uplift of Anatolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bowers Ridge is an ~700 km long arcuate ridge behind the Central Aleutian Arc in the Bering Sea. The lack of age and geochemical data for the ridge has hampered the development of geodynamic models for the evolution of the North Pacific and the Aleutian—Bering Sea region. Here we present the first geochemical and 40Ar/40Ar age data for the volcanic basement of Bowers Ridge and a seamount from the western end of the ridge sampled during R/V Sonne cruise SO201-1b. The northern Bowers Ridge basement (26-32 Ma) consists of mafic to intermediate calc-alkaline rocks with adakite-like (Sr/Y = 33-53, LaN/YbN = 3.3-7.8), high field strength element (HFSE)—depleted (e.g., NbN/LaN = 0.07-0.31) trace element patterns and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope compositions within the Western Aleutian Arc array, implying magma generation above an obliquely subducting slab. The seamount samples (22-24 Ma) are HFSE-rich alkaline olivine basalts (LaN/YbN = 3.3-3.9, NbN/LaN = 1.0-1.4) with minor arc-type trace element signatures (PbN/CeN = 1.4-1.6, KN/NbN = 1.7-1.9) but with Pacific mid-oceanic-ridge basalt (MORB)—like isotopic compositions, pointing to an origin by small-degree decompression melting from slightly subduction-modified mantle. The geochemistry of the recovered rocks can be explained by highly oblique subduction along the northern part of Bowers Ridge in its present-day configuration, consistent with an in-situ origin of Bowers Ridge as a Cenozoic island arc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volcanic and plutonic rocks exposed in the Latir volcanic field, northern New Mexico, provide an opportunity to examine the timing of caldera-related magmatic processes. Fifty-five mineral separates were dated using the 40Ar/39Ar method. Volcanism began at 28.5 Ma and ended at 22.7 Ma, climaxing with the eruption of the high-SiO2 peralkaline Amalia Tuff from the Questa caldera at 25.39 ± 0.04 Ma. Following caldera collapse, four resurgent plutons were emplaced between 25.4 and 25.0 Ma. Previous geochemical studies suggested that the peralkaline phases of two resurgent plutons and a peralkaline ring dike represent an intrusive equivalent to the Amalia Tuff. A new analysis of K-feldspar from the ring dike yielded a plateau age of 25.38 ± 0.04 Ma, supporting this previous conclusion. Only these small-volume peralkaline intrusions are temporally indistinguishable from syncaldera magmatism. The structurally lower resurgent plutons were emplaced ∼100--400 k.y. after the Amalia Tuff eruption and are therefore too young to be the non-erupted, more-mafic parts of Amalia Tuff magma chamber, implying that the Amalia Tuff magma was not generated via in situ differentiation in the upper crust. Following resurgent plutonism, five additional plutons were emplaced between 24.9 and 19.3 Ma along the southern caldera margin and south of the caldera. Thermochronology indicates that most plutons rapidly cooled following emplacement, but that some were subsequently reheated during protracted post-caldera pluton emplacement. The timing of pluton emplacement at the Questa caldera indicates that only small volumes of the intrusive rocks are the same age as the caldera eruption and that most of the intrusive rocks record postcaldera magmatic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radioisotopic dating of subaerial and submarine volcanic and plutonic rocks from the Aleutian Island Arc provides insight into the timing of arc formation in the middle Eocene. Twenty-eight 40Ar/39Ar ages constrain the duration of arc magmatism to the last 46 m.y. Basaltic lavas from the Finger Bay volcanics, the oldest exposed rocks in the arc, gave an isochron age of 37.4 ± 0.6 Ma, which is 12–17 m.y. younger than a widely cited age of 55–50 Ma. Three main pulses of arc-wide magmatism occurred at 38–29, 16–11, and 6–0 Ma, which coincide with periods of intense magmatism in other western Pacific island arcs. Using the geochronology and volumetric estimates of crust generated and eroded over the last 46 m.y., we calculate a time-averaged magma production rate for the entire arc that exceeds previous estimates by almost an order of magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural hydration of obsidian was first proposed as a dating technique for young geological and archaeological specimens by Friedman and Smith (1960), who noted that the thickness of the hydrated layer on obsidian artifacts increases with time. This approach is, however, sensitive to temperature and humidity under earth-surface conditions. This has made obsidian hydration dating more difficult, but potentially provides a unique tool for paleoclimatic reconstructions. In this paper we present the first successful application of this approach, based on combining laboratory-based experimental calibrations with archaeological samples from the Chalco site in the Basin of Mexico, dated using stratigraphically correlated 14C results and measuring hydration depths by secondary ion mass spectrometry. The resultant data suggest, first, that this approach is viable, even given the existing uncertainties, and that a cooling trend occurred in the Basin of Mexico over the past 1450 yr, a result corroborated by other paleoclimatic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]