Volcanic activity in the western Mediterranean during the last 30 Ma

A strong volcanic activity accompany the last 30 Ma evolution of the western and central Mediterranean sea with wide range of compositions which can be grouped in: a) oceanic floor products (Ligurian-Provencal basin and Tyrrhenian sea bathial plain with Magnaghi, Vavilov and Marsili seamounts), whose compositions vary from N-MORB to E-MORB and pure low-K calcalkaline basalts; b) subalkaline series of both tholeiitic (OIB-like) and calcalkaline affinity; c) alkaline products with the most extreme compositional variability ranging from mildly alkaline types with sodic affinity to strongly SiO2-undersaturated with both sodic and potassic to ultrapotassic affinity, exotic compositions such as lamproites and kamafugites, and also quartz-saturated peralkaline trachytes and rhyolites. The Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions of these products comprise virtually all the most common worldwide reservoirs and testify the extreme heterogeneous compositions of the mantle sources of this sector of European lithosphere/asthenosphere system.