The early magmatic chronology of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Abstract Eight new K-Ar determinations are presented which, together with field relations and previous studies, are used to construct a chronology of the volcanic build-up of Fuerteventura. The earliest island-building volcanics are late Cretaceous to early Tertiary alkaline basaltic volcaniclastic sediments, and these may be correlated with the early gabbro/pyroxenite intrusions which were probably subvolcanic to the early edifice. This was followed by a carbonatitic subvolcanic complex then by two later high-level gabbro/pyroxenite plutons, the latter being early Miocene or older. The emplacement of a subsequent middle Miocene gabbro/syenite ring complex caused widespread resetting of the Ar contents of the earlier rocks, but nevertheless consideration of the mineralogy of the rocks in conjunction with the field relations enables the long volcanic history ( c . 80 Ma) to be reconstructed.