Petrology and geochemistry of selected Quaternary volcanoes from Vardenis Volcanic Highland (South Armenia)

Vardenis Volcanic Highland (VVH) is a region in Armenia that plays host to continental collision zone volcanism and is part of the wider Lesser Caucasus Volcanic zone. The new dataset presented here aims to further our understanding of the petrological and geochemical complexities of this highland, aiming to bring this under-researched area onto parr with the comparatively well-studied adjacent regions of E. Anatolia and S. Armenia (Syunik and Gegham). A δ11B range of -5.8 to -1.5‰ (as well as other trace element metrics) corroborates the previously determined pre-collisional (subduction) signature thought to be imparted to the mantle source by a sediment melt. The generally low [B] values (1.4-7.2ppm) indicate a dehydrated source, which combined with the range of δ11B, highlights a distinctive mantle reservoir. The Sr-Nd isotope systematics for the new VVH dataset also show significant overlap between VVH and Syunik, extending the outline of the enriched mantle domain under the Armenian part of the Lesser Caucasus.