Emplacement of the Kodiak batholith and slab-window migration

The Kodiak batholith is one of the largest, most elongate intrusive bodies in the forearc Sanak-Baranof plutonic belt located in southern Alaska. This belt is interpreted to have formed during the subduction of an oceanic spreading center and the associated migration of a slab window. Individual plutons of the Kodiak batholith track the location and evolution of the underlying slab window. Six U/Pb zircon ages from the axis of the batholith exhibit a northeastward-decreasing age progression of 59.2 ± 0.2 Ma at the southwest end to 58.4 ± 0.2 Ma at the northeast tip. The trench-parallel rate of age progression is within error of the average slab-window migration rate for the entire Sanak-Baranof belt (~19 cm/yr). Structural relationships, U/Pb ages, and a model of new gravity data indicate that magma from the Kodiak batholith ascended 5-10 km as a northeastward-younging series of 1-8-km-diameter viscoelastic diapirs. Individual plutons ascended by multiple emplacement mechanisms including downward flow, collapse of wall rock, stoping, and diking. Stokes flow xenolith calculations suggest ascent rates of 5-100 m/yr and an effective magmatic viscosity of 107-108 Pa s. Pre-existing structural or lithologic heterogeneities did not dominantly control the location of the main batholith. Instead, its location was determined by migration of the slab window at depth.