Abstract

GUADALUPE, Maro  and  CAFFE, Pablo J. Tertiary mafic volcanism of the Jujuy Puna, the Cerros Negros de Jama. Ser. correl. geol. [online]. 2012, vol.28, n.1, pp.51-72. ISSN 1666-9479.

The Cerros Negros de Jama (23°29' S - 66°56' W) monogenetic volcanoes belong to a group of eruptive centers that are representative of the most mafic magmatism in the northern Puna during the Cenozoic. They comprise scoria cones and associated lava flows erupted during coeval strombolian and effusive volcanic activity. Aphyric to microporphyritic skeletal textures and microphenocryst assemblages dominated by olivine and/or orthopyroxene suggest inexistent or short residence times in supracrustal magma chambers, as well as magma temperatures higher than 1000º C and near to water saturation conditions. The frequent occurrence of magmatic quartz xenocrysts with different degrees of reaction suggests assimilation of silicic magmas/igneous rocks under variable P-T conditions. A combination of large ascent rates and strong turbulence, together with an overheating of the magmas would have been crucial for this in-route contamination process. The Jama volcanic rocks are basaltic andesites and andesites to trachyandesites which belong to the high-K calcalkaline series. The observed geochemical signature is typical of continental arc magmas, showing negative anomalies of Nb, Ta and P, La/Ta > 30 and Ba/Nb > 25. Two main groups of rocks with different evolution patterns can be distinguished from major and trace element diagrams. Different concentrations of some elements at intermediate degrees of evolution point to variable degrees of incompatibility for them, which in turn may have been caused by magma evolution at different depths from the same or different primary magmas.

Keywords : Mafic volcanism; Northern Puna; Central Andes; Basaltic andesites; Andesites.

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