Extreme high field strength element (HFSE) depletion and near-chondritic Nb/Ta ratios in Central Andean adakite-like lavas (~ 28°S, ~ 68°W)

The eruption of andesites with steep REE patterns and high Sr concentrations (adakite-like) in the northernmost Chilean flatslab region of the Central Andes spatially and temporally corresponds with the appearance of a marked HFSE (high field strength element) depletion in these lavas (La/Ta up to 95). Known as the Dos Hermanos and Pircas Negras andesites, these lavas erupted at the beginning (∼ 8 Ma), during (7–3 Ma), and immediately following (3–2 Ma) a period of tectonic instability characterized by eastward migration of the frontal volcanic arc. ICP-MS analyses of the HFSE reveal a range of chondritic (20–18) to subchondritic (18–11) Nb/Ta ratios in these lavas. Evident temporal trace element trends support a change from a rutile-bearing to an amphibole-bearing eclogitic residual assemblage in equilibrium with the mafic precursor magmas of these andesites. This change in residual mineralogy is contemporaneous with the onset of frontal arc migration in the region. Potential eclogitic sources for the Dos Hermanos and Pircas Negras adakitic andesites include mafic Andean lower crust and an additional flux of forearc crust transported to the sub-arc mantle via subduction erosion during the height of arc migration and Pircas Negras magmatism. Batch melting models of rutile- or amphibole-bearing eclogitic arc basalt in tandem with magma mixing calculations generate the observed adakitic signatures and near-chondritic Nb/Ta ratios of these Central Andean andesites.