Geochemistry and Geochronology of the Guajira Eclogites, northern Colombia: evidence of a metamorphosed primitive Cretaceous Caribbean Island-arc

Authors

  • M. WEBER Universidad Nacional de Colombia Carrera 80 No. 65-223, Medellín, Colombia.
  • A. CARDONA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Balbóa, Ancón, Panamá. Corporación Geológica Ares. Bogotá, Colombia
  • V. VALENCIA Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, Gould-Simpson Building 1040 East Fourth St Tucson, Arizona, USA.
  • U. ALTENBERGER Potsdam Universität. Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24; 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
  • M. LÓPEZ MARTÍNEZ Departamento de Geología, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE). Carretera Ensenada Tijuana No 3918, Zona Playitas, Ensenada, Baja California, México 22860.
  • M. TOBÓN Universidad Nacional de Colombia Carrera 80 No. 65-223, Medellín, Colombia.
  • S. ZAPATA Universidad Nacional de Colombia Carrera 80 No. 65-223, Medellín, Colombia.
  • G. ZAPATA Universidad Nacional de Colombia Carrera 80 No. 65-223, Medellín, Colombia.
  • A.E. CONCHA Universidad Nacional de Colombia Carrera 80 No. 65-223, Medellín, Colombia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/105.000001740

Keywords:

Eclogites, Primitive island-arc, Geochronology, Guajira Peninsula, Colombia, Caribbean

Abstract

The chemical composition of eclogites, found as boulders in a Tertiary conglomerate from the Guajira Peninsula, Colombia suggests that these rocks are mainly metamorphosed basaltic andesites. They are depleted in LILE elements compared to MORB, have a negative Nb-anomaly and flat to enriched REE patterns, suggesting that their protoliths evolved in a subduction related tectonic setting. They show island-arc affinities and are similar to primitive islandarc rocks described in the Caribbean. The geochemical characteristics are comparable to low-grade greenschists from the nearby Etpana Terrane, which are interpreted as part of a Cretaceous intra-oceanic arc. These data support evidence that the eclogites and the Etpana terrane rocks formed from the same volcano-sedimentary sequence. Part of this sequence was accreted onto the margin and another was incorporated into the subduction channel and metamorphosed at eclogite facies conditions. 40Ar-39Ar ages of 79.2±1.1Ma and 82.2±2.5Ma determined on white micas, separated from two eclogite samples, are interpreted to be related to the cooling of the main metamorphic event. The formation of a common volcano-sedimentary protolith and subsequent metamorphism of these units record the ongoing Late Cretaceous continental subduction of the South American margin within the Caribbean intra-oceanic arc subduction zone. This gave way to an arc-continent collision between the Caribbean and the South American plates, where this sequence was exhumed after the Campanian

References

Agard, P., Yamato, P., Jolivert, I., Burov, E., 2009. Exhumation of oceanic blueschists and eclogites in subduction zones: timing and mechanism. Earth Science Reviews, 92, 53-79.

Aguirre, L., 1988. Chemical mobility during low-grade metamorphism of a Jurassic lava flow: Río Grande Formation, Peru. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 1, 343-361.

Alvarez, W., 1967. Geology of the Simarua and Carpintero area, Guajira Peninsula, Colombia. Doctoral Thesis. Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, 147pp.

Aspden, J.A., McCourt, W.J., Brook, M., 1987. Geometrical control of subduction related magmatism: the Mesozoic and Cenozoic plutonic history of Western Colombia. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 144, 893-905.

Beets, D.J., Maresch, W.V., Klaver, G.T., Mottana, A., Bocchio, R. Beunk, F.F., Monen, H.P., 1984. Magmatic rock series and high-pressure metamorphism as constraints on the tectonic history of the southern Caribbean. Geological Society of America Memoir, 162, 95-130.

Bocchio, R., Capitani, L., Liborio, G., Maresch, W.V., Mottana, A., 1990. The eclogite-bearing series of Isla Margarita, Venezuela: Geochemistry of metabasic lithologies in the La Rinconada and Juan Griego Groups. Lithos, 25, 55-69.

Burke, K., 1988. Tectonic evolution of the Caribbean. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 16, 210-230.

Cardona-Molina, A., Cordani, U., MacDonald, W., 2006. Tectonic correlations of pre-Mesozoic crust from the northern termination of the Colombian Andes, Caribbean region. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 21, 337-354.

Cardona, A., Weber, M., Wilson, R., Cordani, U., Muñoz, C.M., Paniagua, F., 2007. Evolución tectono-magmática de las rocas máficas-ultramáficas del Cabo de La Vela y el Stock de Parashi, Península de la Guajira: registro de la evolución orogénica Cretácica-Eocena del norte de Suramérica y el Caribe. Bucaramanga, agosto 14-17, XI Congreso Colombiano de Geologia – Sesión Mineralogía y Petrología. 11p.

Cardona, A., Valencia, V., Bayona, G., Jaramillo, C., Ojeda, G., Ruiz, J., 2009. U/Pb LA-MC-ICP-MS zircon geochronology and geochemistry from a post-collisional biotite granite of the Baja Guajira basin, Colombia: Implications for Late Cretaceous and Neogene Caribbean-South America tectonics. The Journal of Geology, 117, 685-692

Cloos, M., Sapiie, B., Quarles van Ufford, A., Weiland, R.J., Warren, P.Q., McMahon, T.P., 2005. Collisional delamination in New Guinea: The geotectonics of subducting slab breakoff. Geological Society of America Special Paper, 400 (Special Paper), 48pp.

Cordani, U.G., Cardona, A., Jimenez, D., Liu, D., Nutman, A.P., 2005. Geochronology of Proterozoic basement inliers from the Colombian Andes: tectonic history of remnants from a fragmented Grenville belt. In: Vaughan, A.P.M., Leat, P.T., Pankhurst, R.J. (eds). Terrane Processes at the Margins of Gondwana. Geological Society of London, 246 (Special Publications), 329-346.

Donnelly, T.W., Rogers, J.J.W., 1978. Igneous series in island arcs. Bulletin of Volcanology, 43, 347-382.

Donnelly, T.W., Beets, D., Carr, M.J., Jackson, T., Klaver, G., Lewis, J., Maury, R., Schellenckens, H., Smith, A., Wadge, G., Westercamp, D., 1990, History and tectonic setting of Caribbean magmatism. In: Dengo, G., Case, J.(ed.). The Caribbean Region, Vol. H. The Geology of North America. Geological Society of America, 339-374.

Ernst, W.G., 1988. Tectonic history of subduction zones inferred from retrograde blueschist P-T paths. Geology, 16, 1081-

García-Casco, A., Iturralde-Vinent, M.A., Pindell, J., 2008. Latest Cretaceous Collision/Accretion between the Caribbean Plate and Caribeana: Origin of Metamorphic Terranes in the Greater Antilles. International Geology Review, 50, 781-809.

Gómez, J., Nivia, A., Montes, N.E., Tejada, M.L., Jiménez, D.M., Sepúlveda, M.J., Osorio, J.A., Gaona, T., Diederix, H., Mora, M., Uribe, H., 2007. Geological Map of Colombia. Scale 1:1.000,000. INGEOMINAS. Bogotá.

Green, D.H., Lockwood, J.P., Kiss, E., 1968. Eclogite and almandine-jadeite-quartz rock from the Guajira Peninsula, Colombia, South America. American Mineralogist, 53, 1320-1335.

Guillot, S., Hattori, K., Agard, Ph., Schwartz, S., Vidal, O., 2009. Exhumation processes in oceanic and continental subduction

contexts: a review. In: Lallemand, S., Funiciello, F. (eds.). Subduction zone geodynamics. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 175-205.

Harrison, T.M., Celerier, J., Aikman, A.B., Hermann, J., Heizler, M.T., 2009. Diffusion of 40Ar in muscovite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 73, 1039-1051.

Hawkesworth, C.J., Gallagher, K., Hergt, J.M., McDermott, F., 1993a. Mantle slab contributions in arc magmas. Annual Reviews in Earth and Planetary Science, 21, 175-204.

Hawkesworth, C.J., Gallagher, K., Hergt, J.M., McDermott, F., 1993b. Trace element fractionation processes in the generation of island arc basalts. In: Tarney, J., Pickering, K.T., Knipe, R.J., Dewey, J.F. (eds.). Melting and melt movement in the Earth. Clarendon Press/The Royal Society of London, 393-405.

Humphris, S.E., Thompson, G., 1978. Trace-element mobility during hydrothermal alteration of oceanic basalts: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 42, 127-136.

Iturralde-Vinent, M.A., Lidiak, E.G., 2006. Caribbean Tectonic, magmatic, metamorphic and stratigraphic events. Foreword. Geologica Acta, 4(1-2), 1-5.

Jolly, W.T., Lidiak, E.G., Dickin, A.P., Wu, T.W., 2001. Secular geochemistry of central Puerto Rican island arc lavas: constraints on Mesozoic tectonism in the Eastern Greater Antilles. Journal of Petrology, 42, 2197-2214.

Jolly, W.T., Lidiak, E.G., Dickin, A.P., 2006. Cretaceous to MidEocene pelagic sediment budget in Puerto Rico and he Virgin Islands (northeast Antilles Island arc). Geologica Acta, 4(1-2), 35-62.

Kellogg, J.N., Godley, V.M., Ropain, C., Bermúdez, A., Aiken, C.L.V., 1991. Gravity Field of Colombia, Eastern Panama and Adjacent Marine Areas. The Geological Society of America, Map and Chart Series MCH 070, Boulder, Colorado.

Krebs, M., Maresch, W.V., Schertl, H.P., Münker,. C., Baumann, A., Draper, G., Idleman, B., Trapp, E., 2008. The dynamics of intra-oceanic subduction zones: a direct comparison between fossil petrological evidence (Rio San Juan Complex, Dominican Republic) and numerical simulation. Lithos, 103, 106-137.

Kretz, R., 1983. Symbols for rock-forming minerals. American Mineralogist, 68, 277-279.

Lockwood, J.P., 1965. Geology of the Serranía de Jarara area, Guajira Península, Colombia. Doctoral Thesis. Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, 237pp.

Macellari, C.E., 1995. Cenozoic sedimentation and tectonics of the southwestern Caribbean pull-apart basin, Venezuela and

Colombia. In: Tankard, A.J., Suárez Soruco, R., Welsink, H.J. (eds.). Petroleum Basins of South America, American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG) Memoir, 62, 757-780.

MacDonald, W.D., 1964. Geology of the Serranía de Macuira area, Guajira Península, Colombia. Doctoral Thesis. Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, 167pp.

MacDonald, W., Opdyke, N.D., 1974, B. Triassic Paleomagnetism of Northern South America. American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Bulletin, 58, 208-215.

Maresch, W.V., Kluge, R., Baumann, A., Pindell, J.L., KrückhansLueder, G., Stanek, K., 2009. The occurrence and timing of high-pressure metamorphism on Margarita Island, Venezuela: a constraint on Caribbean-South America interaction. Geological Society of London, 328 (Special Publications), 705-741.

Masliwec, A., 1984. Applicability of the 40Ar/39Ar method to the dating of ore bodies. DoctoralThesis. University of Toronto,

Canada, 159pp.

McDougall, I., Harrison, T.M., 1999. Geochronology and thermochronology by the 40Ar/39Ar method. New York, Oxford University Press, 269pp.

Montes, C., Hatcher, R.D., Restrepo-Pace, P., 2005. Tectonic reconstruction of the northern Andean blocks: Oblique convergence and rotations derived from the kinematics of the Piedras–Girardot area, Colombia. Tectonophysics, 399, 221-250.

Montes, C., Guzmán, G., Bayona, G., Cardona, A., Valencia, V. Jaramillo, C., 2010. Clockwise Rotation of the Santa Marta Massif and Simultaneous Paleogene to Neogene Deformation of the Plato-San Jorge and Cesar-Ranchería Basins. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 29, 832-848.

Nakamura, N., 1974. Determination of REE, Ba, Fe, Mg, Na and K in carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites. Geochimica et

Cosmochimica Acta, 38, 75-775.

Pearce, J.A., 1983. Role of sub-continental lithosphere in magma genesis at active continental margins. In: Hawkesworth, C.J., Norry, M.J. (eds.). Continental basalts and mantle xenoliths. Nantwich, Shiva press, 230-249.

Pindell, J.L., 1993, Regional synopsis of Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean evolution. In: Pindell, J.L., Perkins B.F. (eds.). Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic Development of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Region: A Context for Hydrocarbon Exploration: Gulf Coast Section Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Foundation, 251-274.

Pindell, J.L., 1994, Evolution of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. In: Donovan, S.K., Jackson, T.A. (eds.). Caribbean Geology: An Introduction, University of the West Indies Publisher’s Association, Kingston, Jamaica, 13-39.

Pindell, J.L., Kennan, W.V., Maresch, K, Stanek, P., Draper, G., Higgs, R., 2005. Platekinematics and crustal dynamics of circum-Caribbean arc continent interactions: Tectonic controls of basin development in Proto-Caribbean margins. In: Avé Lallement, H., Sisson, V.B. (eds.). Caribbean-South American Plate Interactions, Venezuela. Geological Society of America, 394 (Special Paper), 7-52.

Pindell, J.L., Kennan, L., 2009. Tectonic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and northern South America in the mantle reference frame: an update. In: James, K.H., Lorente, M.A., Pindell, J.L. (eds.). The Origin and Evolution of the Caribbean Plate. Geological Society of London, 328 (Special Publications), 1-55.

Proenza, J.A., Díaz-Martínez, R., Iriondo, A., Marchesi, C., Melgarejo, J.C., Gervilla, F., Garrido, C.J., Rodríguez-Vega, A., Lozano-Santacruz, R., Blanco-Moreno, J.A., 2006. Primitive Cretaceous island-arc volcanic rocks in Eastern Cuba: the Téneme Formation. Geologica Acta, 4(1-2), 103-121.

Shervais, J.W., 1982. Ti-V plots and the petrogenesis of modern and ophiolitic lavas. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 59,

-118.

Sisson, V.B., Ertan, I.E., Avé Lallemant, H.G., 1997. Highpressure (~2000 MPa) Kyanite- and glaucophane-bearing politic schist and eclogite from Cordillera de la Costa belt, Venezuela. Journal of Petrology, 33, 65-83.

Sisson, V.B., Avé Lallemant, H.G., Ostos, M., Blythe, A.E., Snee, L.W., Copeland, P., Wright, J.E., Donelick, R.A., Gruth, L.R., 2005. Overview of radiometric ages in three allochthonous belts of northern Venezuela: Old ones, new ones and their impact on regional geology. In: Avé Lallemant, J.G., Sisson, V.B. (eds.). Caribbean-South American plate interactions, Venezuela. Geological Society of America, 394 (Special Paper), 91-118.

Smith, C.A., Sisson, V.B., Avé Lallemant, H.G., Copeland, P., 1999. Two contrasting pressure-temperature-timepaths in the Villa de Cura blueschist belt, Venezuela: Possible evidence for Late Cretaceous initiation of subduction in the Caribbean. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 111, 831-848.

Staudigel, H., Plank, T., White, B., Schmincke, H.U., 1996. Geochemical fluxes during seafloor alteration of the basaltic upper oceanic crust: DSDP sites 417 and 418. In: Bebout, G.E., Scholl, D.W., Kirby, S.H., Platt, J.P. (eds.). Subduction top to bottom. American Geophysica Union Monograph, 96, 19-36.

Steiger, R.H., Jäger, E., 1977. Subcommission on Geochronology: Convention on the use of decay constants in Geo and Cosmochronology. Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters, 36, 359-362.

Stöckhert, B., Maresch, W.V., Brix, M., Kaiser, C., Toetz, A., Kluge, R., Krückhans-Lueder, G., 1995. Crustal History of Margarita Island (Venezuela) in detail: Constraint on the Caribbean plate-tectonic scenario. Geology, 23, 787-790.

Thompson, P.M.E., Kempton, P.D., White, R.V., Saunders, A.D., Kerr, A.C., Tarney, J., Pringle, M.S., 2004. Elemental, Hf – Nd isotopic and geochronological constraints on an island arc sequence associated with the Cretaceous Caribbean plateau: Bonaire, Dutch Antilles. Lithos, 74, 91-116.

Tobón, M., Weber, M., García-Casco, A., Cardona, A., Valencia, V.A., 2009. Pressure-temperature and time constraints for high pressure metasedimentary rocks from northernmost Colombia – Caribbean region. III Cuban Convention in Earth Sciences, La Havana, Cuba. Workshop “Subduction Zones of the Caribbean”, 13-25.

Tang, H.F., Liu, C.Q., Nakai, S., Orishashi, Y., 2007. Geochemistry of eclogites from the Dabie–Sulu terrane, eastern China: New insights into protoliths and trace element behaviour during UHP metamorphism. Lithos, 95, 441-457.

Unger, L.M., Sisson, V.B., Avé Lallemant, H.G., 2005. Geochemical Evidence for island-arc origin of the Villa de Cura blueschist belt, Venezuela. In: Avé Lallemant, J.G., Sisson, V.B. (eds.). Caribbean-South American plate interactions, Venezuela. Geological Society of America, 394 (Special Paper), 223-250.

Vence, E., 2008. Subsurface Structure, Stratigraphy, and Regional Tectonic Controls of the Guajira Margin of Northern Colombia. Doctoral Thesis. University of Texas, 128pp.

Verma, S.P., 2006. Extension related origin of magmas from a garnet bearing source in the Los Tuxtlas volcanic field, Mexico. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 95, 871-901.

Villamil, T., 1999. Campanian-Miocene tectonostratigraphy, depocenter evolution and basin development of Colombia and Western Venezuela. Paloegeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology, 153, 239-275.

Volkova, N.I., Frenkel, A.E., Budanov, V.I., Lepezin, G.G., 2004. Geochemical signatures for eclogite protolith from Maksyutov Complex, South Urals. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 23, 745-759.

Volkova, N.I., Stupakov, S.I., Babin, G.A., Rudnev, S.N., Mongush, A.A., 2009. Mobility of trace elements during subduction metamorphism as exemplified by the blueschists of the Kurtushibinsky Range, Western Sayan. Geochemistry International, 47, 380-392.

White, R.N., Tarney, J., Kerr, A.C., Saunders, A.D., Kempton, R.D., Klaver, G.T., 1999. Modification of an oceanic plateau, Aruba, Dutch Caribbean: Implications for the generation of continental crust. Lithos, 46, 43-68.

Winchester, J.A, Floyd, P.A., 1977. Geochemical discrimination of different magma series and their differentiation products

using immobile elements. Chemical Geology, 20, 325-343.

Weber, M., Cardona, A., Wilson, R., Gómez-Tapias, J., Zapata, G., 2007. Química mineral de las rocas de alta presión-Facies Eclogita, de la Península de la Guajira, Colombia. Boletín de Geología, 29, 31-38.

Weber, M.B.I., Cardona, A., Paniagua, F., Cordani, U., Sepúlveda, L., Wilson, R., 2009. The Cabo de la Vela mafic-ultramafic complex, Northeastern Colombian Caribbean region – A record of multi stage evolution of a Late Cretaceous intra-oceanic arc. In: James, K., Lorente, M.A., Pindell, J. (eds.). The geology and evolution of the region between North and South America. Geological Society of London, 328 (Special Publications), 549-568.

Wood, D.A., 1980. The application of the Th-Hf-Ta diagram to problems of tectonomagmatic classification and to establishing the nature of crustal contamination of basaltic lavas of the British Tertiary Volcanic Province. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 50, 11-30.

Wright, J.E., Wyld, S.J., in press. Late Cretaceous subduction initiation on the eastern margin of the Caribbean-Colombian oceanic plateau (CCOP): One Great Arc of the Caribbean (?). Lithosphere.

York, D., Evensen, N.M., López-Martínez, M., De BasabeDelgado, J., 2004. Unified equations for the slope, intercept, and standard errors of the best straight line. American Journal of Physics, 73, 367-375.

Zapata, G., Weber, M., Cardona, A., Jiménez, D., Gómez, J., Nivia, A., Wilson, R., 2005. Análisis petrográfico de las rocas de alta presión de la Serranía de Jarara, La Guajira y sus implicaciones tectónicas. X Congreso Colombiano de Geología – Simposio de Geología Regional, Bucaramanga, 68-69.

Zapata, S., Weber, M., Cardona, A., Valencia, V., Guzmán, G., Tobón, M., 2010. Provenance of Oligocene conglomerates and associated sandstones from the Siamaná Formation, Serrania de Jarara, Guajira, Colombia: implication on Oligocene Caribbean-South America tectonics. Boletín de Ciencias de la Tierra, 27, 7-23.

Zuluaga, C.A., Medina, P.A., Martinez, L.F., 2008. A Cretaceous Subduction Zone in Northern Colombia (southern Caribbean plate)? Geological Society of America, Joint Annual Meeting Abstract, 128-6.

Downloads

Published

2011-11-30