The Cenozoic alkaline volcanism of the Senegalo-Mauritania sedimentary basin presents an episodic long-lasting volcanic activity from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary up to the Quaternary. Two volcanic episodes are usually distinguished on stratigraphical grounds: a Miocene one and a Quaternary one separated by a period of quiescence of several million years corresponding to the main phase of lateritic weathering. The Tertiary lavas are highly silica-undersaturated alkaline rocks ranging from nephelinites to basanites. They contain nepheline and fassaite-type clinopyroxene in their mineralogy. The Quaternary lavas are more evolved with Hy-normative in comparison to the Tertiary ones;they are composed of basanites and medium to coarser-grained dolerites. The distribution of the REE and other incompatible elements are typical of alkaline lavas with generally strong LREE enrichment without significant Eu anomaly. The Cenozoic Cap-Vert lavas have OIB (oceanic islands basalts)-affinities as shown by their relatively radiogenic Nd and unradiogenic Sr characters closed to the HIMU-OIB. This suggests a HIMU-type end member in the magma sources which is fairly comparable to those erupted in the Canaries and Cape Verde archipelagoes during the same period.
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