Fractional Crystallization and Crustal Contamination of Doleritic and Trachytic Dykes Crosscutting the Cretaceous Sedimentary Basins from Figuil (North Cameroon) and Léré(South-Western Chad): Geodynamic Implications

Magmatism in the Cretaceous sedimentary basins of the Figuil and Léré regions constitutes one of the fundamental parameters in the reconstruction of the history of the Cretaceous sedimentary basins. The main objective of this paper is to constrain the petrogenetic processes of hypovolcanic rocks and to determine their geodynamic context of emplacement. The petrographic study of mafic hypovolcanic and trachytic rocks was carried out under a polarizing microscope on thin sections. For the geochemical study, the major oxides and some trace elements were analyzed by ICP-AES. Trace and rare earth elements were analyzed by ICP-MS. The dolerites of the Cretaceous sedimentary basins are composed of dykes of amphibole bearing dolerites, biotite and pyroxene bearing dolerite, pyroxene bearing dolerites and trachytes. The dykes are in the order of 20 to 100 m wide by several kilometers long and oriented from N23°E to N90°E. The textures of these rocks are sub-ophitic to intergranular for dolerites and trachytic for evolved rocks (trachytes). The geochemical study shows that the dolerites are basaltic in composition with alkaline to subalkaline character. The sampled dykes have an evolution dominated by fractional with the minor impact of the crustal assimilation characterized by low Rb/Y ratios for dolerites (0.36 - 0.97) and high values of Rb/Y for the Pan-African granitoids’ samples (1.95 - 4.01). The nature of doleritic and trachytic magma sources is supported by their (Tb/Yb)N > 1.9 (1.91 - 3.79) and Dy/Yb > 2 (2.32 - 3.50) ratios of most samples, which suggests melting in a garnet-bearing mantle. Concerning the geodynamic context of the studied rocks, doleritic samples are classified as within-plate tholeiite and volcanic arc basalt, and within-plate alkali basalts.