Episodic intrusion, internal differentiation, and hydrothermal alteration of the Miocene Tatoosh intrusive suite south of Mount Rainier, Washington

The Miocene Tatoosh intrusive suite south of Mount Rainier is composed of three broadly granodioritic plutons that are manifestations of ancestral Cascades arc magmatism. Tatoosh intrusive suite plutons have individually diagnostic characteristics, including texture, mineralogy, and geochemistry, and apparently lack internal contacts. New ion-microprobe U-Pb zircon ages indicate crystallization of the Stevens pluton ca. 19.2 Ma, Reflection-Pyramid pluton ca. 18.5 Ma, and Nisqually pluton ca. 17.5 Ma. The Stevens pluton includes rare, statistically distinct ca. 20.1 Ma zircon antecrysts. Wide-ranging zircon rare earth element (REE), Hf, U, and Th concentrations suggest late crystallization from variably evolved residual liquids. Zircon Eu/Eu*–Hf covariation is distinct for each of the Reflection-Pyramid, Nisqually, and Stevens plutons. Although most Tatoosh intrusive suite rocks have been affected by weak hydrothermal alteration, and sparse mineralized veins cut some of these rocks, significant base or precious metal mineralization is absent.

At the time of shallow emplacement, each of these magma bodies was largely homogeneous in bulk composition and petrographic features, but, prior to final solidification, each of the Tatoosh intrusive suite plutons developed internal compositional variation. Geochemical and petrographic trends within each pluton are most consistent with differential loss of residual melt, possibly represented by late aplite dikes or erupted as rhyolite, from crystal-rich magma. Crystal-rich magma that formed each pluton evidently accumulated in reservoirs below the present level of exposure and then intruded to a shallow depth. Assembled by episodic intrusion, the Tatoosh intrusive suite may be representative of midsized composite plutonic complexes beneath arc volcanoes.