A Second North American Hot-spot: Pleistocene Volcanism in the Anahim Volcanic Belt, west-central British Columbia

TL;DRAbstract

Alkaline and peralkaline magmatism occurred along the Anahim Volcanic Belt (AVB), a 330 km long linear feature in west-central British Columbia. The belt includes three felsic shield volcanoes, the Rainbow, Ilgachuz and Itcha ranges as its most notable features, as well as regionally extensive cone fields, lava flows, dyke swarms and a pluton. Volcanic activity took place periodically from the Late Miocene to the Holocene. A systematic decrease in the ages of individual centres from the western part of the AVB to its eastern end is interpreted as the effect of a hot-spot underlying the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. Other hypotheses for the existence of the AVB include regional extension, a plate edge/slab window effect along the northern edge of the subducted Juan de Fuca/Explorer plates, and a fracture propagating west to east. In this study, I first summarise existing works to provide a context for AVB volcanism. Then I report new whole-rock geochemical data and 40Ar/39Ar age

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