Abstract
Recent paleomagnetic and K-Ar age dating studies in the Caroline Islands show that the high volcanic islands of Truk, Panape and Kusaie formed at the same shallow latitude and display a progression of ages increasing westward from 1 m.y. (Kusaie), through 6 m.y. (Ponape) to 12 m.y. (Truk). These data suggest that the islands were formed by a young hotspot or melting anomaly. One hundred and fifty volcanic rocks from these three islands have been analysed for major and 15 trace elements and results indicate that shield-building lavas on each island (1) evolved by low-pressure open-system fractional crystallisation of a small range of partial melts and (2) became more alkaline with time from Truk to Kusaie. The secular geochemical variation along the Caroline chain may represent a hotspot trace whose magma production was slowly declining over the past 14 m.y.
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Mattey, D.P. The minor and trace element geochemistry of volcanic rocks from Truk, Ponape and Kusaie, Eastern Caroline Islands; the evolution of a young hot spot trace across Old Pacific Ocean Crust. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 80, 1–13 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00376730
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00376730