Geochemical investigation of the Del Bac Hills volcanics, Pima County, Arizona

Abstract

The Del Bac Hills are a northeast-trending chain composed of mid-Tertiary Turkey Track porphyry dikes and flows, overlain by potassic basaltic andesites intercalated with sediments. These hills are considered the southernmost extension of the Tucson Mountains and lie along a northeast-trending basement scarp which extends across the Tucson Basin. Turkey Track porphyry intrudes the San Xavier conglomerate as two parallel dikes, closely associated in time but with different magnetic orientations. Potassium-argon dating of a flow associated with the older dike yielded a mean of 26.8 m.y. for plagioclase phenocrysts and groundmass. Plagioclase of the younger dike sampled 50 feet from the contact with the San Xavier conglomerate and at a depth of approximately 200 feet yielded an anomalous age of 46.4 m.y., representing 0.29 x 10^-10 moles per gram excess Ar4° in comparison with the extrusive. The 21 basaltic andesite flows are essentially contemporaneous at 24-25 m.y. Tight grouping of K/Rb and Rb/Sr for the basaltic andesites confirms the field inference of two separate sources. Specific gravity and initial Sr^87/Sr^86 determinations for the porphyry and basaltic andesites do not preclude a comagmatic origin for the two rock types. Post-extrusive faulting along three principal directions has established the present configuration of the hills.