V31A-3008
New geochronological constraints of the Lassen segment’s regional volcanism
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Aurelie Germa1, Charles Connor1, Laura Connor2, Rocco Malservisi1, Samantha Tavarez2, Sylvain J Charbonnier3, Michael A Clynne4, Christopher Perry1, Xavier Quidelleur5 and Julia Ricci5, (1)University of South Florida Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States, (2)University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States, (3)Universty of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States, (4)USGS California Water Science Center Menlo Park, Menlo Park, CA, United States, (5)University of Paris-Sud 11, Orsay, France
Abstract:
The Lassen region is the southernmost active volcanic field in the Cascade Range. Since ~3.5 Ma distributed mafic to intermediate calc-alkaline magmas continuously built hundreds of cinder cones, lava flows, and a few small shield volcanoes. A set of 10 new unspiked K-Ar ages obtained on groundmass separates help reveal the timing of this regional volcanism. Although most lavas show a high atmospheric contamination level and a low K content, significant ages were obtained with this technique. Shields were dated at about 2.5 Ma (Clynne and Muffler, 2010) and are commonly dissected by erosion. However, we obtained a K-Ar age of 374 ± 25 ka for the late lava flow at the summit of Crater Mountain, which is less eroded than the other shields. This indicates that this regional volcano’s activity overlapped that of the Lassen Volcanic Center (LVC), and raises questions regarding the ages of other shields. The Caribou Volcanic field (CVF), at the eastern boundary of the Lassen region, was also contemporaneous with the LVC. The field’s activity initiated ~425 ka ago, but does not appear to have extended into the Holocene (Clynne and Muffler, 2010). We obtained a K-Ar age of 296 ± 13 ka on the basaltic andesite of Eleanor Lake, extending further the activity of the Caribou sequence. Our K-Ar age of 59 ± 3 ka on a basaltic flow confirms that the Bidwell Spring Chain was active between 20 and 70 ka as previously shown. We dated the basaltic andesite tuya of Turnaround Lake at 4 ± 5 ka. However, this conflicts with the timing of Tuya chain (15-18 ka). Finally, to the south-west of LVC, basalts of Cold Creek Butte yield an age of 207 ± 26 ka, and we dated a basaltic flow from Inskip Hill at ~5 ka. The new ages obtained, especially the Holocene ones, are consistent with magnetotelluric soundings and gravity data that show mid-crustal anomalies in the back-arc (Tavarez, 2015). These data demonstrate that the CVF is still active and has the potential for future eruptions.
