The old central igneous complexes of Sal, Boa Vista and Maio islands: Implications for 17 Ma of isotopic evolution of the Cape Verde archipelago

Abstract

The central igneous complexes of the easternmost islands (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) preserve some of the most ancient outcropping rocks of the Cape Verde (CV) archipelago. These Early to Middle Miocene (about 25 to 12 Ma) complexes show marked isotopic differences between mafic rocks from the northern (Sal and Boa Vista) and the southern Maio Island, the latter showing lower ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, and higher ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios. The main mantle plume composition beneath Cape Verde is here considered to be dominated by the FOZO component. Our data supports previous models suggesting the incorporation to plume components of minor DMM mantle sources in the northern CV island alignment, whereas mixing with the EM1 pole is prevalent on the southern CV islands. These isotopic differences are evident since the early stages of Cape Verde magmatism. The Late Miocene to Holocene time period (7 to 1.7 Ma) is characterized by the irruption of silica-undersaturated and carbonatite magmas with a relatively homogeneous isotopic composition and highly radiogenic Pb signatures (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb up to 20.6 in carbonatitic rocks and 20.2 in silicate rocks) throughout most of the Cape Verde archipelago. During this transitional stage, the input of this new HIMU mantle component overprinted the previous mixing of the main FOZO plume component with shallow mantle members (DMM, EM1) of minor contribution.