Geochemistry and intrusive history of the Ashland pluton, Klamath Mountains, California and Oregon

Robert F. Gribble; Calvin G. Barnes; Mary M. Donato; James D. Hoover; Ronald W. Kistler

doi:10.1093/petrology/31.4.883

Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70241943

Geochemistry and intrusive history of the Ashland pluton, Klamath Mountains, California and Oregon

Robert F. Gribble·Calvin G. Barnes·Mary M. Donato·James D. Hoover·Ronald W. Kistler

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The Ashland pluton is a calc-alkaline plutonic complex that intruded the western Paleozoic and Triassic belt of the Klamath Mountains in late Middle Jurassic time. The pluton comprises a series of compositionally distinct magma pulses. The oldest rocks are hornblende gabbro and two-pyroxene quartz gabbro with initial 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0˙7044, δ 18 O = 8˙7%, and REE patterns with chondrite normalized La/Lu = 7. These units were followed by a suite of tonalitic rocks (La N /Lu N = 7) and then by a suite of K 2 O- and P 2 O 5 rocks of quartz monzodioritic affinity (La N /Lu N = 13–21; La N /Sm N = 2˙4–3˙) The quartz monzodioritic rocks were then intruded by biotite granodiorite and granite with lower REE abundances but more fractionated LREE(La N /Lu N = 13–19; La N /Sm N = 4˙3–6 and they, in turn, were host to dikes and bosses of hornblende diorite. The latest intrusive activity consisted of aplitic and granitic dikes. Combined phase equilibria and mineral composition data, indicate emplacement conditions of approximately P total = 2˙3kb, P H2O between 1˙5 and 2˙2 kb, and f O2 between the nickel-nickel oxide and hematite-magnetite buffers. Successive pulses of magma display increasing SiO 2 together with increasing δ 18 O and decreasing initial 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. The isotopic data are consistent with either (1) combined fractional crystallization of andesitic magma and concurrent assimilation of crustal material characterized by low Sr 1 and high (δ 18 O or, more probably, (2) a series of partial melting events in which sources were successively less radiogenic but richer in 18 O Each intrusive stage displays evidence for some degree of crystal accumulation and/or fractional crystallization but neither process adequately accounts for their compositional differences. Consequently, each stage appears to represent a distinct partial melting or assimilation event. The P 2 O 5 -rich nature of the quartz monzodiorite suite suggests accumulation of apatite. However, the suite contains abundant mafic microgranitoid enclaves and most apatite in the suite is acicular. These observations suggest that magma mixing affected the compositional variation of the quartz monzodiorite suite. Mass balance calculations are consistent with a simple mixing process in which P 2 O 5 -rich alkalic basalt magma (represented by the mafic microgranitoid enclaves) was combined with a crystal-poor felsic magma (represented by the tonalite suite), yielding a quartz monzodioritic magma that then underwent differentiation by crystal fractionation and accumulation.

Explore related subjects

Journal of Petrology Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 38.96731555132422° to 43.85025544933649° latitude; -124.55652445312175° to -121.47366229406973° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Robert F. Gribble, Calvin G. Barnes, Mary M. Donato, James D. Hoover, Ronald W. Kistler. 1990. Geochemistry and intrusive history of the Ashland pluton, Klamath Mountains, California and Oregon. https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology%2F31.4.883

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2026

Petrological, textural, and volatile constraints on the architecture of Mauna Loa’s magmatic system over 170 years (1852–2022)

Mauna Loa’s reawakening in 2022 highlighted the limited availability of petrological constraints characterizing the geometry and dynamics of pre-eruptive storage at this volcano. In particular, there has been relatively little prior work constraining pre-eruptive volatile budgets, mineral zoning and textures. To address this, we examine olivine- and orthopyroxene-hosted melt inclusions (MIs), their mineral hosts, and matrix glasses from seven Mauna Loa eruptions spanning 170 years (1852–2022). We present the first extensive MI dataset from Mauna Loa with direct Raman measurements of vapor bubble CO 2 . Olivine- and orthopyroxene-hosted MIs contain 0.3–0.5 wt % H 2 O and 100–600 μg/g CO 2 . MI saturation pressures reveal that the dominant reservoir is located at ~2–5 km depth, consistent with fluid inclusion barometry and geophysical constraints. This depth has remained consistent over the past 170 years, although some eruptions appear to have tapped a narrower range of depths than others. Even the high-Mg# orthopyroxene phenocryst-hosted MIs record saturation pressures of <150 MPa (<6 km depth), which is inconsistent with a deep sub-Moho origin proposed by previous studies that rely on thermodynamic modeling. Our Raman measurements also provide an opportunity to assess the accuracy of different methods to reconstruct the amount of CO 2 in vapor bubbles, with applications to MI datasets published without direct Raman measurements. In general, models that partition CO 2 between the melt and bubble using the bubble volume prior to pre-eruptive quenching (e.g. Melt Inclusion Modification Corrections, MIMiC) systematically underestimate CO 2 contents by a median of ~100–200 μg/g (depending on the model and K D choice) and thus underestimate storage depths by ~0.5–1.5 km. While these methods are useful for first-order estimates of bubble CO 2 in published datasets, new studies should measure bubble CO 2 by Raman spectroscopy or perform MI rehomogenization. The zoning and textures of the crystals that host the MIs provide additional constraints on the plumbing system to supplement MI barometry. Orthopyroxene crystals exhibit varied zoning patterns, including oscillatory zoning that records repeated fluctuations in magmatic conditions, and sector zoning indicating rapid, kinetically controlled crystal growth. While faster Fe-Mg diffusion in olivine results in a simpler zoning record, complexly zoned olivines with higher-Fo ‘shoulders’ from 1852, 1868, and 1950 also record the injection of more primitive melts at shallow levels. Electron backscatter diffraction reveals that touching crystals in orthopyroxene glomerocrysts exhibit only very weakly systematic crystallographic orientation relationships, perhaps due to rapid aggregation in a dynamic system. Overall, our data are consistent with a large, shallow (~2–5 km) pre-eruptive reservoir repeatedly recharged by primitive magma injections that homogenized prior to eruption due to their small volume relative to the overall size of this reservoir. This chemical complexity is effectively recorded in mineral and MI compositions (orthopyroxene zoning in particular) but is obscured in glass and whole-rock analyses.

Hawaii↗

USGS2026

Shallow differentiation of primitive arc magmas at the Jurassic Emigrant Gap mafic complex, Sierra Nevada, California

The Emigrant Gap composite pluton exposes ultramafic to silicic intrusive rocks that preserve the chemical evolution of primitive mafic arc magmas and their open-system interactions in the upper crust during mid-Jurassic growth of the Sierra Nevada batholith (California). We present field and petrographic observations and mineral and whole-rock chemistry of the ~35-km 2 ultramafic to dioritic Emigrant Gap mafic complex and an adjacent penecontemporaneous ~90-km 2 granodiorite that together make up the composite pluton. In the Emigrant Gap mafic complex, four roughly central masses of dunite, wehrlite, and olivine clinopyroxenite are surrounded by weakly layered gabbronorite and non-layered diorite. The ultramafic rocks are cumulates formed from near-liquidus minerals of primitive arc magmas that accumulated in steep feeder zones with substantial modification by melt–mush reaction as primitive liquids repeatedly transited the mush-filled conduits. The dominant gabbronoritic rocks are the variably accumulative products of more advanced crystallization–differentiation of arc tholeiitic basalts and basaltic andesites. The adjacent granodiorite intrusion originated separately and preserves field and geochemical evidence for assimilation of metasedimentary rocks. Open-system hybridization between the gabbronoritic mushes and the granodioritic magma produced an intervening body of two-pyroxene diorite. We infer that the ultramafic rocks and gabbronorite of the Emigrant Gap mafic complex crystallized from near-primitive arc basaltic to basaltic andesitic magmas at ~0.15–0.3 GPa, with estimated f O 2 of ≥FMQ +1 and dissolved H 2 O concentrations of only ~0.5–2 wt %. Notably, the Emigrant Gap composite pluton is distinct from other Mesozoic plutons in the Sierra Nevada batholith because of (1) its abundance of mafic and ultramafic rocks that crystallized from relatively primitive mafic melts and (2) the low inferred H 2 O concentrations of its parental magmas, indicated by a near absence of igneous amphibole and by the intermediate rather than calcic compositions of plagioclase. A Jurassic regional extension event probably accounts for the formation of relatively dry primitive arc magmas, as well as for their ascending to the upper crust.

California↗

USGS2026

Magmatic source of the opening phase of Kīlauea’s 2018 Lower East Rift Zone eruption

The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano in its Lower East Rift Zone began with the discharge of evolved high-Ti basalt as weak lava fountains and short, slow-moving lava flows. The lavas were quickly geochemically recognized as being derived from magmas stored within the rift zone and remobilized by a new intrusion, a sequence that is common at Kīlauea. This initial phase of the 2018 eruption, referred to as phase 1a, lasted for 6 days and was followed by extrusion of mixed magma after a 3-day pause. Even though remobilization of older rift zone magmas is common within Kīlauea’s rift zones, it is difficult to determine which past intrusion(s) may have initially emplaced those stored magmas. This difficulty stems from the tendency for Kīlauea magmas to follow very similar differentiation paths without significant variations in major, minor, or even trace element chemistry. We investigate possible magma sources for the lavas erupted during phase 1a of the 2018 eruption using whole-rock, mineral, and glass major and trace element compositions from historical East Rift Zone eruptions with adjacent fissures. We consider two primary hypotheses for the phase 1a source: magmas associated with the 1955 Lower East Rift Zone eruption or the nine eruptions in the Middle and Upper East Rift Zone during the 1960s. Our results suggest that magma associated with the earliest phases of Kīlauea’s 1955 eruption was the most likely source of the 2018 phase 1a remobilized magma. We determine volatile saturation pressures from melt inclusion chemistry and find similar storage depths for the 2018 phase 1a and early 1955 magmas. The phase 1a and early 1955 lavas are nearly indistinguishable in all of the compositional criteria considered, implying that the leftover 1955 magma body barely cooled and differentiated in the 63 years between eruptions (cooling rates of ~0.1 °C/year). This study sheds light on the potential for protracted storage of eruptible magmas in rift zones at Kīlauea, and highlights some of the challenges and solutions to identifying genetic relationships between magmas at Kīlauea.

Hawaii↗