Geochemistry of the Quaternary alkali basalts of Garrotxa (NE Volcanic Province, Spain): a case of double enrichment of the mantle lithosphere

The area of Garrotxa (also known as the Olot area) represents the most rece nt (700,000-11,500 y) and better preserved area of magmatic activity in the NE Volcanic Province of Spain (NEVP). This region comprises a suite of int racontinental leucite basanites, nepheline basanites and alkali olivine bas alts, which in most cases represent primary or nearly primary liquids. The geochemical characteristics of these lavas are very similar to the analogou s petrologic types of other Cenozoic volcanics of Europe, which are interme diate between HIMU, DM and EM1. Quantitative trace element modeling, suggests derivation from an enriched m antle source by degrees of melting that progressively increased from the le ucite basanites (similar to4%) to the olivine basalts (similar to 16%). How ever, the relatively more variable Sr-Nd-Pb isotope signature of the magmas suggests the participation of at least two distinct components in the mant le source: (1) a sublithospheric one with a geochemical signature similar t o the magmas of Calatrava (Central Spain) and other basalts of Europe; and (2) an enriched lithospheric component with a K-bearing phase present. The geochemical model proposed here involves the generation of a hybrid mantle lithosphere source produced by the infiltration of the sublithospheric liqu ids into enriched domains of the mantle lithosphere, shortly before the mel ting event that generated the Garrotxa lavas. The available geological data suggest that the first enrichment event of th e mantle lithosphere under the NEVP could be the result of Late Variscan ma ntle upwelling triggered by the extensional collapse of the Variscan orogen during the Permo-Carboniferous. By Jurassic/Cretaceous time, large-scale N NE-directed sublithospheric mantle channeling of thermally and chemically a nomalous plume material was placed under the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe. However, the geodynamic conditions in the NEVP did not favor magmat ism, which could not take place until the Cenozoic after extension started. This favored the second enrichment event of the mantle lithosphere by entr ainment and storage of liquids generated in the sublithospheric plume mater ial. After a relatively short period of time, as extension progressed, it t riggered melting in the enriched portions of the mantle lithosphere during the Quaternary, generating the Garrotxa volcanism. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.