UpperCretaceoustoHoloceneMagmatismovertheNeuquénbasinEvidencefortransientshallowingofthesubductionzoneundertheNeuquénAndes(36S….docVIP

Upper Cretaceous to Holocene Magmatism over the Neuquén Basin: Evidence for transient shallowing of the subduction zone under the Neuquén Andes (36°S to 38°S latitude) S. M. Kay, INSTOC, Snee Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA, smk16@. W. Matthew Burns, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, 20192, USA; wburns@. Peter Copeland, Dept. Geosciences, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA, copeland@. Oscar Mancilla, REPSOL-YPF, Buenos Aires, Argentina. OMANCILLAD@. ABSTRACT New 40Ar/39Ar ages, major and trace element chemistry, and isotopic ratios along with the distribution and structural setting of Upper Cretaceous to Holocene arc and backarc magmatic rocks in an Andean transect at ~36° to 37.5°S provide constraints on magmatic source regions, periods of compressional and extensional deformation, and changes in subducting plate geometry under the Neuquén Basin. Upper Cretaceous to Holocene frontal arc region magmas show little temporal variation in chemistry or eruption style. This lack of variability is consistent with a comparable magma source region, a nearly constant crustal thickness, and similar slab geometry from the trench to the magmatic front throughout this time. The changing chemistry and style of contemporaneous backarc magmas fit with a variable backarc slab geometry. These changes includes a period of transient shallowing that began at ~ 20 Ma and reached a climax in the late Miocene at a time of widespread contractional deformation and eruption of arc-like magmas up to ~ 500 km east of the trench. A return to a steeper subducting slab in the Pliocene to Holocene fits with melting of hydrated mantle over in a thickening mantle wedge leading to the widespread production of backarc plateau magmatism in a moderately extensional regime. The southern limit of widespread Miocene to Pleistocene backarc magmatism coincides with the northwest-trending Cortaderas lineament that projects into the boundary between the transitional and central