Pre-Teide Volcanic Activity on the Northeast Volcanic Rift Zone

Abstract

The northeast rift zone of Tenerife (NERZ) presents a partially eroded volcanic rift that offers a superb opportunity to study the structure and evolution of oceanic rift zones. Field data, structural observations, isotopic dating, magnetic stratigraphy, and isotope geochemistry have recently become available for this rift and provide a reliable temporal framework for understanding the structural and petrological evolution of the entire rift zone. The NERZ appears to have formed in several major pulses of activity with a particularly high production rate in the Pleistocene (ca. 0.99 and 0.56 Ma). The rift underwent several episodes of flank creep and eventual catastrophic collapses driven by intense intrusive activity and gravitational adjustment. Petrologically, a variety of mafic rock types, including crystal-rich ankaramites, have been documented, with most samples isotopically typical of the “Tenerife signal”. Some of the NERZ magmas also bear witness to contamination by hydrothermally altered components of the island edifice and/or sediments. Isotope geochemistry furthermore points to the generation of the NERZ magmas from an upwelling column of mantle plume material mixed with upper asthenospheric mantle. Finally, persistent isotopic similarity through time between the NERZ and the older central edifices on Tenerife provides strong evidence for a genetic link between Tenerife’s principal volcanic episodes.