Chapter 5: Petrology and geochemistry of the metaluminous to peraluminous Chemehuevi Mountains Plutonic Suite, southeastern California

Structural relief resulting from middle Tertiary extensional deformation in the Chemehuevi Mountains exposes a unique cross section through a temporally and compositionally zoned (both vertically and horizontally), laccolith-shaped intrusion of Late Cretaceous age. The calc-alkalic, metaluminous to peraluminous Chemehuevi Mountains Plutonic Suite exhibits crude normal, vertical, and temporal zonation. The zones are progressively younger and more felsic away from the roof and walls; the most differentiated material is concentrated toward the center and floor of the intrusion. Hornblende-biotite- and biotite granodiorite are metaluminous and form the outer margin of the intrusion along the northern and southern walls, and sill-like bodies in an older suite of granitoids and Proterozoic basement rocks. Locally these rocks bear a sub-horizontal, southwest-trending, mylonitic lineation, considered to be synchronous with regional mylonitic deformation. Later and more evolved units are subequigranular to porphyritic, metaluminous to weakly peraluminous biotite granodiorite to granite, and make up the greatest proportion of the intrusion. The youngest, most leucocratic members of the suite are undeformed, locally garnetiferous muscovite granite and granodiorite that form the central part of the intrusion.

Major, trace, and rare earth element data indicate that the magmas of the Cheme-huevi Mountains Plutonic Suite became progressively enriched in Si, K, Rb, Mn, Y, U, and heavy rare earth elements (REE). Fractional crystallization of some REE–rich accessory minerals was important in producing some of these trends. Although modest compositional breaks occur across internal contacts, the general continuity of trends from field, modal, and chemical data suggests that these rocks constitute a comagmatic intrusive suite. Estimates for the pressure of emplacement of the suite vary from 4 to 6 kbar, or a minimum depth of 12 km. Preliminary Pb-, Sr-, and oxygen-isotopic data, together with the REE chemistry, suggest that the Chemehuevi Mountains Plutonic Suite was derived from a heterogeneous crustal source. Compositional variations within the plutonic suite are consistent with open-system fractionation, involving fractional crystallization of discrete batches of magma derived from the melting of a heterogeneous crustal source under H₂O-saturated conditions.