Petrology and age of volcanic-arc rocks from the continental margin of the Bering Sea: implications for Early Eocene relocation of plate boundaries
Eocene volcanic flow and dike rocks from the Beringian margin have arc characteristics, implying a convergent history for this region during the early Tertiary. The extrusive rocks are basalt, basaltic andesite, andesite, and minor dacite and rhyolite. The intrusive sample is from a quartz diorite dike intruding serpentinized peridotite. Major-element oxide contents, particularly FeO*/MgO versus SiO2, identify both tholeiitic and calc-alkalic basalt; more silicic lavas have calc-alkalic affinities. Consistent with volcanic-arc compositions, spidergrams show pronounced Nb–Ta depletion and alkali enrichment relative to light-rare-earth-element (LREE) abundance. Chondrite-normalized REE plots show relatively flat patterns, with only slight LREE enrichment for tholeiitic compositions and greater LREE enrichment and lower heavy-rare-earth-element (HREE) abundance for calc-alkalic compositions. The samples, particularly those with calc-alkalic compositions, are rich in plagioclase that is strongly zoned; the mo...