Pt. Leat et al., GEOCHEMISTRY OF PALEOZOIC-MESOZOIC PACIFIC RIM OROGENIC MAGMATISM, THURSTON ISLAND AREA, WEST ANTARCTICA, Antarctic science, 5(3), 1993, pp. 281-296
Thurston Island, and the adjacent Eights Coast and Jones Mountains, re
cord Pacific margin magmatism from Carboniferous to Late Cretaceous ti
mes, The igneous rocks form a uniformly calc-alkaline, high-alumina, d
ominantly metaluminous suite; some relatively fractionated granitoids
are mildly peraluminous. The magmas were hydrous, a result of subducti
on. Gabbros have compositions outside the range of mafic volcanic and
hypabyssal rocks, as a result of cumulate processes. Trace element com
positions of the mafic magmas range from a low La/Yb, Th/Ta end-member
close to E-MORB in composition, perhaps contaminated by crust, to a h
igh La/Yb, Th/Ta end-member, close to shoshonite, with strong magmatic
arc trace element character. This variation may be a result of mixing
of tholeiitic and shoshonitic end-members. Most silicic rocks could h
ave been generated batch-wise from mafic magmas by fractional crystall
ization of a phenocryst assemblage dominated by plagioclase, pyroxene/-amphibole, as seen in the cumulates. Cessation of magmatism at about
90 Ma approximately coincided with collison of a spreading centre bet
ween the Phoenix and Pacific oceanic plates with the continent margin
subduction zone. The rifting of New Zealand from West Antarctica and a
ssociated extension probably was responsible for emplacement of a coas
t-parallel Cretaceous dyke swarm.