Garibaldi group volcanic rocks of the salal creek area, southwestern British Columbia: Alkaline lavas on the fringe of the predominantly calc-alkaline garibaldi (cascade) volcanic arc

The Salal Creek area, at the north end of the main group of vents for the Quaternary Garibaldi (Cascade) Volcanic Belt, southwestern British Columbia, was the site of several small eruptions of mafic lava during the past 1 Ma. In contrast to the calc-alkaline character of all other parts of the Garibaldi Belt and the geographically nearly coincident Miocene and older Pemberton Volcanic Belt, the Salal Creek area Quaternary lavas are predominantly alkaline basalt and hawaiite with typical alkaline volcanic petrography, chemistry, and fractionation trends. Trace elements Ti-Zr-Y show within-plate character for the suite. As for other Garibaldi Belt volcanic rocks, Rb is low, Rb/Sr very low, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio is low, averaging 0.7032. The oxygen isotopic composition average, ¹⁸O = 5.9, is normal for mantle-derived volcanic rocks.This distinct change in magma type at the end of a volcanic are may be the consequence of a smaller degree of melting, melting at a slightly greater depth than calc-alkaline magma production, or a descending-plate edge effect.Ponded flows and pillow-palagonite accumulations indicate that several Salal Creek area eruptions occurred in proximity to ice which filled major valleys during pre-Wisconsin glacial periods.