Regional patterns of Mesozoic-Cenozoic magmatism in western Alaska revealed by new U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar ages

In support of regional geologic framework studies, we obtained 50 new argon-40/argon-39 (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar) ages and 33 new uranium-lead (U-Pb) ages from igneous rocks of southwestern Alaska. Most of the samples are from the Sleetmute and Taylor Mountains quadrangles; smaller collections or individual samples are from the Bethel, Candle, Dillingham, Goodnews Bay, Holy Cross, Iditarod, Kantishna River, Lake Clark, Lime Hills, McGrath, Medfra, Talkeetna, and Tanana quadrangles.

A U-Pb zircon age of 317.7±0.6 million years (Ma) reveals the presence of Pennsylvanian intermediate igneous (probably volcanic) rocks in the Tikchik terrane, Bethel quadrangle. A U-Pb zircon age of 229.5±0.2 Ma from gabbro intruding the Rampart Group of the Angayucham-Tozitna terrane, Tanana quadrangle, confirms and tightens a previously cited Triassic age for this intrusive suite. A fresh mafic dike in Goodnews Bay quadrangle yielded a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar whole rock age of 155.0±1.9 Ma; this establishes a Jurassic or older age for the previously unconstrained (Paleozoic? to Mesozoic?) sandstone unit that it intrudes. A thick felsic tuff in the Gemuk Group in Taylor Mountains quadrangle yielded a U-Pb zircon age of 153.0±2.0 Ma, extending the age of magmatism in this part of the Togiak terrane back into the Late Jurassic. We report three new U-Pb zircon ages between 120 and 110 Ma—112.0±0.9 Ma from syenite in the Candle quadrangle, 114.9±0.3 Ma from orthogneiss assigned to the Ruby terrane in Iditarod quadrangle, and 116.6±0.1 Ma from a gabbro of the Dishna River mafic-ultramafic complex in Iditarod quadrangle. The latter result requires a substantial age revision, from Triassic to Cretaceous, for at least some rocks that have been mapped as the Dishna River mafic-ultramafic complex. A tuff in the Upper Cretaceous Kuskokwim Group yielded a U-Pb zircon (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe, SHRIMP) age of 88.3±1.0 Ma; we speculate that the eruptive source was an arc along the trend of the Pebble porphyry copper deposit along the Gulf of Alaska continental margin. More than half of the new ages fall between 75 and 65 Ma, confirming the existence, based on conventional potassium-argon (K-Ar) ages, of a 70-Ma igneous flare-up across southwestern Alaska. Our new ages hint that during this pulse, the locus of magmatism shifted toward the Gulf of Alaska, that is, toward a more outboard position. This shift is consistent with the hypothesis that magmatism was the product of rollback of a subducted slab, which at that time would have been the Resurrection Plate. Intrusive rocks in the Taylor Mountains and Sleetmute quadrangles in the age range of 63 to 59 Ma were emplaced shortly before the onset of ridge subduction as dated by near-trench plutons in the adjacent part of the Chugach accretionary complex. Southwestern Alaska at this time would have been positioned above a very young subducted slab belonging to the Resurrection Plate; magmas, in this scenario, were generated near the edge of the slab window related to ridge subduction. A 56.3±0.2 Ma granite in Taylor Mountains quadrangle and a 54.7±0.7 Ma ashfall tuff in McGrath quadrangle were likely emplaced above the Resurrection-Kula slab window, which by this time is inferred to have entered the region. Another ashfall tuff in McGrath quadrangle, at 42.8±0.5 Ma, likely belongs to the Meshik Arc, the product of renewed subduction after inferred passage of the slab window. A 49.0±0.3-Ma rhyolite in Taylor Mountains quadrangle is about the age of the transition from slab window to renewed subduction. Two plutons in the western Alaska Range, at 31.8±0.4 and 30.9±0.6 Ma, belong to a suite of gabbro to peralkaline granite of unknown origin. Finally, a 4.6±0.1-Ma basalt from a flow in Taylor Mountains quadrangle belongs to the Neogene basaltic province of western Alaska. These rocks were erupted in a distal retroarc setting; the cause of magmatism is unknown.