Evidence for crustal assimilation, mixing of magmas, and a ⁸⁷Sr-rich upper mantle

Abstract

18O/16O, 87Sr/86Sr and chemical analyses were made on 39 lavas and ignimbrites from M. Vulsini, the most northerly district of the K-rich Quaternary Roman Province of Italy. These rocks belong mainly to the undersaturated, leucite-bearing (High-K) series, but also included are samples from the less abundant, SiO2-saturated, hypersthene-(quartz)-normative (Low-K) series. The effects of post-eruption alteration on the δ 18O of these lavas were taken into account by analyzing phenocrysts or by using the extrapolation procedure developed for the nearby Alban Hills center. Because of the high Sr contents (500–2400 ppm), the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of these rocks were little affected by such alteration processes. The M. Vulsini volcanics have Sr- and O-isotopic ratios much less uniform, and on the average much higher, than at any of the other volcanic centers of the province: 87Sr/86Sr=0.7097 to 0.7168; δ 18O=6.5 to 13.8. This is attributable to the fact that M. Vulsini is one of the sites of greatest crustal assimilation and hybridism between K-rich Roman magmas and SiO2-rich Tuscan anatectic magmas. The High-K series parent magmas at M. Vulsini had a very high and uniform 87Sr/86Sr=0.7102 to 0.7104, and a somewhat more variable δ 18O=+5.5 to +7.5; they must have come from an upper mantle source region previously metasomatically enriched in 87Sr and LIL elements. These 18O/16O and 87Sr/86Sr ratios are identical to the parent magma at the Alban Hills, 120 km to the south, where Low-K lavas are absent. Low-K series magmas at M. Vulsini originated from a lower-87Sr source region than the High-K series (<0.7097); a similar relationship is observed in all of the other localities in Italy where the two magma series coexist.