Cretaceous diapiric plutonism in the southern cordillera, Chile

The Castores and probably the Santa Rosa plutons of north-west Isla Navarino, southern Chile, have been emplaced by in situ diapirism into metasedimentary rocks of the Upper Jurassic (?)-Lower Cretaceous Yaghan Formation. For the former, this model is consistent with the concentric foliation paralleling the margin of the pluton and the foliation and stratification planes in the metamorphic aureole. Only the southern part of the Santa Rosa Pluton is preserved, and it has some structures similar to those of the Castores Pluton, which can also be interpreted as produced by an inflating diapir. The main intrusive rocks of these plutons are quartz-monzodiorites and quartz-diorites with synmagmatic foliation. They were preceded by minor bodies of hornblende gabbros, and followed by dykes and small bodies of non-foliated granodiorites. Non-foliated to weakly foliated granodiorites, forming the centre of the Castores Pluton, probably represent a younger intrusive pulse. Twelve K-Ar mineral dates from 10 specimens of plutonic rocks, interpreted as near crystallization ages, span the period 80-90 Ma. These dates do not show the sequence of intrusion of the different rock-types, which may suggest that all of them were intruded and cooled in a short period of time. The timing of emplacement of these plutons in relation to tectonism is difficult to determine; however, a post-tectonic emplacement for at least the Castores Pluton, is proposed.