GEOCHEMISTRY OF MAFIC DIKES IN THE ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS - IMPLICATIONS FOR LATE PROTEROZOIC CONTINENTAL RIFTING

Mafic dikes of late Proterozoic age which cut Grenvillian crust in the northeastern Adirondack Mountains are mostly mildly alkaline basalts except for a few tholeiitic examples. All dikes are high in Ti, P, K, Zr, Y, and LREE, and plot in within-plate fields on tectonic discriminant diagrams. The dikes are similar in composition to Hudson Highland dikes in southern New York and New Jersey and to the Bakersville dike swarm in the southern Appalachians. They differ from the Grenville dike swarm in Ontario and Quebec in being alkaline and having higher Ti and P contents. Mesozoic alkaline dikes in the same geographic area as the Proterozoic ones are strongly enriched in Ba, K, Rb and LREE, and approach lamprophyre in composition. The Proterozoic dikes have low La/Nb and La/Ta ratios, suggesting that subduction-modified mantle lithosphere was not substantially involved in their genesis. This contrasts with certain Mesozoic tholeiitic dikes, associated with the opening of the Atlantic, which show sharp negative Nb or Ta anomalies relative to La indicating they were derived from subduction-modified lithospheric mantle. The trace element chemistry suggests that the source for the Proterozoic dikes was trace element-enriched asthenosphere (OIB-like source), as postulated for certain basalts erupted in the East African Rift system, and in parts of the Basin and Range Province of the southwestern United States of America. Finally, the Proterozoic dikes are chemically similar to rift volcanics from the western Vermont Appalachians, and thus they are thought to represent magmatism associated with extension of the Grenvillian crust prior to opening of the Iapetus ocean.