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Post-Paleozoic activity - Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory ...

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<strong>activity</strong> was initiated. The initial border faulting and early stages<br />

of basin subsidence apparently did not coincide with any eastern<br />

North American tholeiitic <strong>activity</strong>.<br />

The gross aspects of petrology and geochemistry of the Early<br />

Jurassic eastern North American igneous province are relatively<br />

uniform when compared to the highly varied compositional<br />

range of most volcanic suites associated with island-arc or com-<br />

pressional settings. Despite the large size of the province, only<br />

four major and one minor geochemical populations (Weigand<br />

and Ragland, 1970; Ragland and Whittington, 1983b) account<br />

for the great majority of the igneous occurrences. The uniform<br />

geochemistry of the province implies that the prevailing tectonic<br />

processes were acting uniformly throughout the entire province<br />

or at least extensive parts of it. The geochemical populations<br />

include two olivine-normative types (high LIL and low LIL), two<br />

quartz normative types (high Ti and low Ti), and a minor alkali-<br />

olivine type (Ragland and Whittington, 1983b). Weigand and<br />

Ragland (1970) also recognized an additional quartz-normative<br />

type (the high-Fe type) that Ragland and Whittington (1983b)<br />

. <strong>Post</strong>-<strong>Paleozoic</strong> <strong>activity</strong> 353<br />

now interpret as a variety of the high-Ti type. The normative<br />

groups are included in Table 1.<br />

Olivine Normative Types<br />

The major-element chemistry of the olivine normative tho-<br />

leiites is similar in many respects to mid-ocean ridge basalt<br />

(MORB). The olivine normative tholeiites, however, unlike<br />

"normal" MORB, display a slight chondrite-normalized enrich-<br />

ment of light rare earth elements (REE) relative to heavy REE<br />

(Ragland and others, 197 1; Bryan and others, 1977: Philpotts and<br />

Schnetzler, 1968; Gottfried and others, 1977), suggesting a man-<br />

tle source that was less depleted than the MORB source.<br />

The two olivine normative types are distinguished from each<br />

other on the basis of differences in large-ion lithophile (LIL) trace<br />

elements and iron content (Ragland and Whittington, 1983a).<br />

The texture of the low-LIL olivine diabase is typically sub-<br />

ophitic with very few phenocrysts. Typical low-LIL diabase is<br />

composed of approximately 55 percent plagioclase (Anyo), 30<br />

TABLE 1. EARLY JURASSIC EASTERN NORTH AMERICA IGNEOUS ROCKS (continued)<br />

HIGH-FE QUARTZ NORMATIVE<br />

- TI, Zr, and Cu-depleted basalt and diabase - -TI, Zr, and Cu-enriched basalt and diabase -<br />

HighFe Sander Preakness Holyoke Pomperaug Pal-int. Ladentown Cushetunk Hook Mt. Hampden<br />

No. of<br />

Analyses 15 14 11 10 19 7 5 2 6 6<br />

so2<br />

lo2<br />

4 9 3<br />

Fe2°<br />

Fed<br />

MnO<br />

w<br />

CaO<br />

NaoO<br />

KpO<br />

P2°<br />

H20+<br />

H20-<br />

Total 100.67<br />

Trace elements (ppm)<br />

Ba .......<br />

Co 52<br />

Cr 94<br />

cu 74<br />

Ni 34<br />

Rb 22<br />

Sr 178<br />

v .......<br />

Zn 99<br />

Zr 94<br />

Reference 1

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