Lithospheric influences on magma compositions of late Mesozoic and Cenozoic intraplate basalts (the Older Volcanics) of Victoria, south-eastern Australia

• We describe the geochemistry of 95–18 Ma intraplate basalts of Victoria, Australia.
• Basalt geochemistry reflects polybaric melting of variably metasomatised mantle.
• Spatial variations in Sr isotopic composition are linked to lithospheric structure.
• Primary basalts derived from both lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle sources.
• The volcanic history is linked to tectonics using an edge-driven convection model.

Basaltic volcanism, ranging in age from Late Cretaceous to Holocene and extending across the southern part of the state of Victoria in south-eastern Australia was initiated during the earliest stages of rifting associated with opening of the Tasman Sea and Southern Ocean. Volcanism has continued sporadically since that time with major breaks in activity occurring between 77 and 62 Ma and 18 and 7 Ma. Basaltic rocks with ages in the range 95 to 18 Ma occur in small lava fields scattered across eastern and south-eastern Victoria and they have also been recovered from bore holes in the west of the state. They have been referred to as the “Older Volcanics” to differentiate them from more volumetrically extensive and younger (mainly < 4.6 Ma) lava fields comprising the “Newer Volcanics” of the Western District Province to the west.Older Volcanics vary in composition from SiO2-undersaturated nephelinites, basanites, basalts and hawaiites through transitional basalts to hypersthene and quartz normative tholeiites. Strontium, Nd and Pb isotopic compositions lie between depleted (DM) and enriched (EM1 and EM2) end member mantle components in Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic space. Trace element compositions are generally characterised by enrichment of Cs, Ba, Rb, Th, U, Nb, K and light REE over heavy REE, Ti, Zr and Y and the overall patterns of major and trace element behaviour can be explained in general terms by petrogenetic models involving partial melting of a complex spectrum of mantle compositions with subsequent but limited additional modification by fractional crystallisation with or without assimilation of crust.Among basalts with relatively high Mg# [100 ∗ Mol. MgO/(MgO + FeO) > 65], two distinct end member compositions can be differentiated using primitive mantle normalised extended element patterns. Group 1 basalts have convex upward patterns with enrichment of light over heavy REE and depletion of Rb, Ba, Th and U relative to Nb. Group 2 basalts also have distinctive convex upwards patterns but are characterised by strong depletions of K, Rb and Ba relative to Nb. In both groups there is additional subtle variation with some samples having patterns with relative enrichments in Nb, Sr and Eu and/or depletions in Pb. Group 1 basalt compositions can be approximated by quantitative models involving 2 to 10% partial melting of an originally depleted mantle composition that has been metasomatised by the addition of 2 to 3% of an enriched component with a composition similar to EM1 intraplate basalt. The trace element patterns of Group 2 basalts can be modelled by 2 to 10% partial melting of an originally depleted mantle metasomatised by the addition of 1% of a calci-carbonatite composition.When Sr isotope data for Older Volcanics are projected onto an east–west profile across the state of Victoria, they outline distinctive discontinuities in isotopic composition that appear to be related to surface and subsurface structural features within the basement. One such discontinuity has previously been identified using data for the Newer Volcanics of the Western District Province of Victoria. Lithospheric blocks present beneath southern Victoria range in age from NeoProterozoic or Cambrian to Palaeozoic and some of the lowest 87Sr/86Sr ratios are observed in basalts erupted above an older basement unit (the Selwyn Block). The inference is that there is some form of lithospheric control on basaltic magma chemistry and since a substantial proportion of Older Volcanics have the geochemical characteristics of primary magmas (high Mg# and moderate to high abundances of Ni and Cr), this could indicate that magmas have been sourced from regionally heterogeneous, variably metasomatised, sub-continental lithospheric mantle.Neither the temporal and spatial relationships of the magmatic activity that followed continental breakup nor the uplift history of the south-eastern Australian passive margin are readily explained in terms of deep mantle plume tectonic models. Edge-driven convection across the irregular base of the southern Australian lithosphere, within the asthenosphere offers an elegant explanation for the longevity of the magmatic activity, its distribution, the small magma volumes involved and the uplift history as well as the geochemical variation observed in the eruptives.