Erebus volcanic province: petrology

Abstract

Igneous rocks of the Erebus Volcanic Province have been investigated for more than a century but many aspects of petrogenesis remain problematic. Current interpretations are assessed and summarized using a comprehensive dataset of previously published and new geochemical and geochronological data. Igneous rocks, ranging in age from 25 Ma to the present day, are mainly nepheline normative. Compositional variation is largely controlled by fractionation of olivine + clinopyroxene + magnetite/ilmenite + titanite ± kaersutite ± feldspar, with relatively undifferentiated melts being generated by <10% partial melting of a mixed spinel + garnet lherzolite source. Equilibration of radiogenic Sr, Nd, Pb and Hf is consistent with a high time-integrated HIMU sensu stricto source component and this is unlikely to be related to subduction of the palaeo-Pacific Plate around 0.5 Ga. Relatively undifferentiated whole-rock chemistry can be modelled to infer complex sources comprising depleted and enriched peridotite, HIMU, eclogite-like and carbonatite-like components. Spatial (west–east) variations in Sr, Nd and Pb isotopic compositions and Ba/Rb and Nb/Ta ratios can be interpreted to indicate increasing involvement of an eclogitic crustal component eastwards. Melting in the region is related to decompression, possibly from edge-driven mantle convection or a mantle plume.