Temporal and geochemical variability of volcanic products of the Marquesas hotspot

Abstract

Basalts dredged from submerged portions of volcanoes along the Marquesas lineament decrease in age from northwest to southeast. The new sample age distribution yields a volcanic migration rate significantly slower than that expected for Pacific plate motion over a stationary Marquesas hotspot. This and the aberrant orientation of the chain indicate deflection of the plume by westward upper mantle flow. The interaction of this weak plume with upper mantle flow accounts for the temporal and spatial patterns in Marquesan volcanism. Large-scale melting of the lower lithosphere or upper mantle (DMM+HIMU) entrained within a sheared, thermally buoyant plume (EM II) could produce the tholeiitic and transitional basalts found in the main shields of the volcanoes, while alkalic basalts could result from melting of mantle of EM II composition at the edges of the hotspot. -from Authors