Abstract
Three stratigraphic units based on geologic relationships and paleomagnetic observations may be distinguished on Pinzon Island. The oldest unit is a broad shield which forms the main body of the island and was erupted during a period of reversed magnetic polarity from an area now occupied by a caldera. Subsequent activity was centered about 1.5 km to the north-northwest from vents later engulfed by the collapse of a younger caldera. The lower portion of this sequence was erupted during a period of transitional pole positions and is overlain by flows of normal polarity. Pinzon has the most diverse suite of differentiated tholeiitic rocks found in the Galapagos Archipelago. Products of eruptive cycles are preserved as sequences of tuffs and flows that have decreasing degrees of differentiation and increasing phenocryst abundance upsection. The sequences may be a consequence of tapping successively deeper levels of compositionally zoned magma chambers. Such a model is consistent with computer calculations utilizing major and trace element data for Pinzon rocks, which suggest that lavas of the island may be related by shallow-level crystal fractionation of observed phenocryst minerals.
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Baitis, H.W., Lindstrom, M.M. Geology, petrography, and petrology of Pinzon Island, galapagos archipelago. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 72, 367–386 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371345
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371345