Geology of the hills in the region of the City of Santiago de Chile: New isotopic constraints

Geological, geochronological and geochemical data demonstrate that the area where the city of Santiago de Chile is established used to be a huge volcanic field. At present, it is possible to distinguish in the area at least three volcanic cycles, which are geographically superimposed and deeply eroded. The first is Oligocene in age, the second Lower to Middle Miocene and the third is Middle to Upper Miocene. The Oligocene cycle is represented by volcanic and volcanoclastic rocks of the Provincia-San Ramon-Abanico and Conchali belts, and welded tuffs of the San Cristobal and Renca hills. The Lower to Middle Miocene cycle consists of subvolcanic rocks, mostly of basaltic to basaltic-andesite composition, characterized by the presence of clino- and orthopyroxene. The Middle to Upper Miocene cycle is composed predominantly of amphibole-bearing subvolcanic rocks of dacitic composition. The latter are found at the Manquehue hill, which limits the northern part of the city, and the hills at the Rinconada de Conchali. In this communication, we present new Sr-, Nd- and Pb- isotope data obtained from two subvolcanic samples of basaltic composition collected from the San Cristobal hill and at the Santa Lucia hill (Lower to Middle Miocene) and one amphibole-bearing subvolcanic sample of dacitic composition from the Manquehue hill (Middle to Upper Miocene) (au)