The basic lavas of the Eastern Red Hills district, Isle of Skye

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Abstract
Synopsis: Major- and trace-element data from hydrothermally altered basic lavas from the Eastern Red Hills district of the Tertiary igneous centre of Skye indicate that members of two distinct assemblages are present—a transitional series, with characteristic light rare-earth-element (REE) enrichment ((Ce/Yb) N > 3.5), showing affinities to the voluminous plateau lavas of north Skye, and a distinctly tholeiitic assemblage typified by relatively flat REE patterns ((Ce/Yb) N < 3.5) and Ti/Zr 100–110. The REE data suggest that this tholeiitic group belongs to the previously defined Fairy Bridge magma type, which appears to have evolved in the upper crust by low-pressure crystal fractionation involving olivine and plagioclase. These tholeiites have REE patterns which are very similar to those of the subvolcanic granites of the district ((Ce/Yb) N ≈ 3.0–3.5), suggesting a probable cogenetic relationship between the tholeiites and the granites.