U–Pb and Sm–Nd geochronology of the Kızıldağ (Hatay, Turkey) ophiolite: implications for the timing and duration of suprasubduction zone type oceanic crust formation in the southern Neotethys

2012 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
FATIH KARAOĞLAN ◽  
OSMAN PARLAK ◽  
URS KLÖTZLI ◽  
MARTIN THÖNI ◽  
FRIEDRICH KOLLER

AbstractThe Kızıldağ (Hatay) ophiolite in Turkey represents remnants of the southern Neotethyan ocean and is characterized by a complete ocean lithospheric section. It formed in a fore-arc setting above a N-dipping intraoceanic subduction zone, and represents the undeformed, more northerly part of the same thrust sheet that also forms the Baer–Bassit ophiolite to the south. The ophiolite was emplaced southwards from the southerly Neotethyan ocean in Maastrichtian time. U–Pb and Sm–Nd dates are used to constrain the crystallization age and duration of magmatic activity of the Kızıldağ ophiolite. U–Pb dating yielded ages of 91.7 ± 1.9 Ma for a plagiogranite and 91.6 ± 3.8 Ma for a cumulate gabbro. The cumulate gabbro also yielded a Sm–Nd isochron age of 95.3 ± 6.9 Ma. The measured ages suggest that the oceanic crust of the Kızıldağ ophiolite formed in a maximum time period of 6 Ma, and that the plagiogranite may have formed later than the gabbroic section. The U–Pb zircon ages from the Kızıldağ ophiolite and the cooling age of a metamorphic sole beneath the Baer–Bassit ophiolite are indistinguishable within the analytical uncertainties. This indicates the presence of young and hot oceanic lithosphere at the time of intraoceanic subduction/thrusting in the southern Neotethys. The U–Pb zircon ages from the Kızıldağ, the Troodos and the Semail ophiolites overlap within analytical uncertainties, suggesting that these ophiolites are contemporaneous and genetically and tectonically related within the same Late Cretaceous southern Neotethyan ocean.

2011 ◽  
Vol 148 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 762-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
HADI SHAFAII MOGHADAM ◽  
ROBERT J. STERN

AbstractThe Zagros fold-and-thrust belt of SW Iran is a young continental convergence zone, extending NW–SE from eastern Turkey through northern Iraq and the length of Iran to the Strait of Hormuz and into northern Oman. This belt reflects the shortening and off-scraping of thick sediments from the northern margin of the Arabian platform, essentially behaving as the accretionary prism for the Iranian convergent margin. Distribution of Upper Cretaceous ophiolites in the Zagros orogenic belt defines the northern limit of the evolving suture between Arabia and Eurasia and comprises two parallel belts: (1) Outer Zagros Ophiolitic Belt (OB) and (2) Inner Zagros Ophiolitic Belt (IB). These belts contain complete (if disrupted) ophiolites with well-preserved mantle and crustal sequences. Mantle sequences include tectonized harzburgite and rare ultramafic–mafic cumulates as well as isotropic gabbro lenses and isolated dykes within the harzburgite. Crustal sequences include rare gabbros (mostly in IB ophiolites), sheeted dyke complexes, pillowed lavas and felsic rocks. All Zagros ophiolites are overlain by Upper Cretaceous pelagic limestone. Limited radiometric dating indicates that the OB and IB formed at the same time during Late Cretaceous time. IB and OB components show strong suprasubduction zone affinities, from mantle harzburgite to lavas. This is shown by low whole-rock Al2O3and CaO contents and spinel and orthopyroxene compositions of mantle peridotites as well as by the abundance of felsic rocks and the trace element characteristics of the lavas. Similarly ages, suprasubduction zone affinities and fore-arc setting suggest that the IB and OB once defined a single tract of fore-arc lithosphere that was disrupted by exhumation of subducted Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone metamorphic rocks. Our data for the OB and IB along with better-studied ophiolites in Cyprus, Turkey and Oman compel the conclusion that a broad and continuous tract of fore-arc lithosphere was created during Late Cretaceous time as the magmatic expression of a newly formed subduction zone developed along the SW margin of Eurasia.


10.1144/m54.5 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-103
Author(s):  
Andreas Scharf ◽  
Frank Mattern ◽  
Mohammed Al-Wardi ◽  
Gianluca Frijia ◽  
Daniel Moraetis ◽  
...  

AbstractThe tectonic evolution of the Oman Mountains as of the Neoproterozoic begins with a major extensional event, the Neoproterozoic Abu Mahara rifting. It was followed by the compressional Nabitah event, still during the Neoproterozoic, in Oman but possibly not in the study area. During the earliest Cambrian, the Jabal Akhdar area was affected by the Cadomian Orogeny, marked by NE--SW shortening. It is unclear, whether the Saih Hatat area was exposed to the Cadomian deformation, too. Still during the lower Cambrian, the Angudan Orogeny followed, characterized by NW--SE shortening. An episode of rifting affected the Saih Hatat area during the mid-Ordovician. During the mid-Carboniferous, both dome areas were deformed by tilting and large-scale open folding in the course of the ‘Hercynian’ event. As a consequence, a major unconformity formed. As another Late Paleozoic event, the Permian break-up of Pangaea and subsequent formation of the Hawasina ocean basin, are recorded in the Southeastern Oman Mountains. As a result, a passive margin formed which existed until the mid-Cretaceous, characterized by deposition of mostly shelfal carbonates. This interval of general tectonic quiescence was interrupted during the early Jurassic by uplift and tilting of the Arabian Platform. The platform collapsed during the late Cretaceous, related to the arrival of the obducted allochthonous nappes including the Semail Ophiolite, transforming the passive margin to an active margin.The Semail Ophiolite formed most likely above a subduction zone within the Neo-Tethys Ocean during the Cenomanian while parts of the Arabian Plate were subducted to the NE. Formation of oceanic lithosphere and SW-thrusting was broadly coeval, resulting in ophiolite obduction onto the Hawasina Basin. The Semail Ophiolite and the Hawasina rocks combined were thrust further onto the Arabian Plate. Their load created a foreland basin and forebulge within the Arabian Platform. Once the continental lithosphere of the Arabian Platform was forced into the subduction zone, a tear between the dense oceanic lithosphere and the buoyant continental lithosphere developed. This led to rapid uplift and exhumation of subducted continental lithosphere of the Saih Hatat area, while obduction was still going on, causing in multiple and intense folding/thrusting within the eastern Saih Hatat Dome. Exhumation of the Saih Hatat Dome was massive. The emplacement of the ophiolite was completed during the Campanian/Maastrichtian. For completeness, we also present alternative models for the developmental history of the Semail Ophiolite.Immediately after emplacement, the Arabian lithosphere underwent intense top-to-the-NE extensional shearing. Most of the Saih Hatat Dome was exhumed during the latest Cretaceous to Early Eocene, associated with major extensional shearing at its flanks. Further convergence during the late Eocene to Miocene resulted in exhumation of the Jabal Akhdar Dome and some gentle exhumation of the Saih Hatat Dome, shaping the present-day Southeastern Oman Mountains. In the coastal area, east and SE of the Saih Hatat Dome, some late Cretaceous to present-day uplift is evident by, e.g., uplifted marine terraces. The entire Oman Mountains are uplifting today, which is evident by the massive wadi incision into various rock units, including wadi deposits which may form overhangs.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 888-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Jenner ◽  
B. J. Fryer

The Snooks Arm Group of the Newfoundland Appalachians, which includes the Betts Cove ophiolite at its base, has been interpreted as oceanic crust overlain by island arc volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The limited geochemical data available on the upper Snooks Arm Group basalts have been used as evidence for and against their formation in an island arc environment.Reinvestigation of the chemistry of the basaltic rocks of the upper Snooks Arm Group establishes them as large ion lithophile enriched tholeiites. Similar basalts have been found in oceanic islands, on aseismic ridges, and possibly in back-arc basins. Chemically analogous rocks are notably lacking from island arc settings.The geochemistry and geology of the upper Snooks Arm Group suggest that these rocks may have formed in either an oceanic island setting or, as recently suggested by Upadhyay and Neale, as part of a marginal basin. It is not possible to distinguish between these alternate models, although the most similar basaltic rocks occur in the former environment. It is most unlikely that these rocks formed in an early island arc setting and indeed there may be no need for them to be associated with a major subduction zone.


Geology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 1029-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew K. Laskowski ◽  
Devon A. Orme ◽  
Fulong Cai ◽  
Lin Ding

Abstract Late Cretaceous trench basin strata were deposited in the subduction zone that consumed Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere along the southern margin of the proto–Tibetan Plateau. We conducted detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb geochronology on six trench basin samples (n = 1716) collected near Dênggar, Tibet (∼500 km west of Lhasa), to assess the provenance of these rocks and reconstruct Late Cretaceous sediment transport pathways. They contained DZ ages that point to a unique source around Lhasa city, north of the Late Cretaceous Gangdese magmatic arc. The modern Lhasa River catchment contains the requisite sources, and its main trunk transects the Gangdese magmatic arc, joining with the Yarlung River at a barbed junction at the India-Asia suture. We infer that the Lhasa River is an ancient feature that transported sediment to the subduction zone in Late Cretaceous time and persisted during India-Asia collision.


Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Li ◽  
Quanshu Yan ◽  
Zhigang Zeng ◽  
Jingjing Fan ◽  
Sanzhong Li ◽  
...  

Molybdenum (Mo) isotope ratios provide a potential means of tracing material recycling involved in subduction zone processes. However, the geochemical behavior of Mo in subducted oceanic crust remains enigmatic. We analyzed Mo isotope ratios of arc and back-arc basin lavas from the Mariana subduction zone (western Pacific Ocean), combining newly obtained element and Sr-Nd-Pb-Li isotope data to investigate subduction zone geochemical processes involving Mo. The Mo isotope ratios (δ98/95MoNIST3134; U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] Mo standard) of the volcanic rocks showed clear across-arc variations, decreasing with increasing depth to the Wadati-Benioff zone. The high δ98/95Mo values in the Mariana Islands (–0.18‰ to +0.38‰) correspond to high 87Sr/86Sr, low 143Nd/144Nd, and radiogenic Pb isotope ratios, suggesting that altered upper oceanic crust played an important role in the magma source. The low δ98/95Mo values in the Central Mariana Trough (–0.65‰ to –0.17‰) with mantle-like Sr-Nd-Pb but slightly low δ7Li values provide direct evidence for the contribution of deep recycled oceanic crust to the magma source of the back-arc basin lavas. The isotopically light Mo magmas originated by partial melting of a residual subducted slab (eclogite) after high degrees of dehydration and then penetrated into the back-arc mantle. This interpretation provides a new perspective with which to investigate the deep recycling of subducted oceanic lithosphere and associated magma petrogenesis.


2009 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMUEL P. RICE ◽  
ALASTAIR H. F. ROBERTSON ◽  
TIMUR USTAÖMER ◽  
NURDAN İNAN ◽  
KEMAL TASLI

AbstractSix individual tectonostratigraphic units are identified within the İzmir–Ankara–Erzincan Suture Zone in the critical Erzincan area of the Eastern Pontides. The Ayıkayası Formation of Campanian–Maastrichtian age is composed of bedded pelagic limestones intercalated with polymict, massive conglomerates. The Ayıkayası Formation conformably overlies the Tauride passive margin sequence in the Munzur Mountains to the south and is interpreted as an underfilled foredeep basin. The Refahiye Complex, of possible Late Cretaceous age, is a partial ophiolite composed of ~75% (by volume) serpentinized peridotite (mainly harzburgite), ~20% diabase and minor amounts of gabbro and plagiogranite. The complex is interpreted as oceanic lithosphere that formed by spreading above a subduction zone. Unusual screens of metamorphic rocks (e.g. marble and schist) locally occur between sheeted diabase dykes. The Upper Cretaceous Karayaprak Mélange exhibits two lithological associations: (1) the basalt + radiolarite + serpentinite association, including depleted arc-type basalts; (2) the massive neritic limestone + lava + volcaniclastic association that includes fractionated, intermediate-composition lavas, and is interpreted as accreted Neotethyan seamount(s). The several-kilometre-thick Karadağ Formation, of Campanian–Maastrichtian age, is composed of greenschist-facies volcanogenic rocks of mainly basaltic to andesitic composition, and is interpreted as an emplaced Upper Cretaceous volcanic arc. The Campanian–Early Eocene Sütpınar Formation (~1500 m thick) is a coarsening-upward succession of turbiditic calcarenite, sandstone, laminated mudrock, volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks that includes rare andesitic lava, and is interpreted as a regressive forearc basin. The Late Paleocene–Eocene Sipikör Formation is a laterally varied succession of shallow-marine carbonate and siliciclastic lithofacies that overlies deformed Upper Cretaceous units with an angular unconformity. Structural study indicates that the assembled accretionary prism, supra-subduction zone-type oceanic lithosphere and volcanic arc units were emplaced northwards onto the Eurasian margin and also southwards onto the Tauride (Gondwana-related) margin during Campanian–Maastrichtian time. Further, mainly southward thrusting took place during the Eocene in this area, related to final closure of Tethys. Our preferred tectonic model involves northward subduction, supra-subduction zone ophiolite genesis and arc magmatism near the northerly, Eurasian margin of the Mesozoic Tethys.


Author(s):  
Brian O’Driscoll ◽  
Julien Leuthold ◽  
Davide Lenaz ◽  
Henrik Skogby ◽  
James M D Day ◽  
...  

Abstract Samples of peridotites and pyroxenites from the mantle and lower crustal sections of the Leka Ophiolite Complex (LOC; Norway) are examined to investigate the effects of melt-rock reaction and oxygen fugacity variations in the sub-arc oceanic lithosphere. The LOC is considered to represent supra-subduction zone (SSZ) oceanic lithosphere, but also preserves evidence of pre-SSZ magmatic processes. Here we combine field and microstructural observations with mineral chemical and structural analyses of different minerals from the major lithologies of the LOC. Wehrlite and websterite bodies in both the mantle and lower crust contain clinopyroxene likely formed at a pre-SSZ stage, characterised by high Al, high Cr, low Mg crystal cores. These clinopyroxenes also exhibit low Al, low Cr, high Mg outer rims and intracrystalline dissolution surfaces, indicative of reactive melt percolation during intrusion and disruption of these lithologies by later, SSZ-related, dunite-forming magmas. Chromian-spinel compositional variations correlate with lithology; dunite-chromitite Cr-spinels are characterised by relatively uniform and high TiO2 and Al2O3, indicating formation by melt-rock reaction associated with SSZ processes. Harzburgite Cr-spinel compositions are more variable but preserve a relatively high Al2O3, low TiO2 endmember that may reflect crystallisation in a pre-SSZ oceanic spreading centre setting. An important finding of this study is that the LOC potentially preserves the petrological signature of a transition between oceanic spreading centre processes and subsequent supra-subduction zone magmatism. Single crystal Cr-spinel Fe3+/ΣFe ratios calculated on the basis of stoichiometry (from electron microprobe [EPMA] and crystal structural [X-ray diffraction; XRD] measurements) correlate variably with those calculated by point-source (single crystal) Mössbauer spectroscopy. Average sample EPMA Fe3+/ΣFe ratios overestimate or underestimate the Mössbauer-derived values for harzburgites, and always overestimate the Mössbauer Fe3+/ΣFe ratios for dunites and chromitites. The highest Fe3+/ΣFe ratios, irrespective of method of measurement, are therefore generally associated with dunites and chromitites, and yield calculated log(fO2)FMQ values of up to ~+1.8. While this lends support to the formation of the dunites and chromitites during SSZ-related melt percolation in the lower part of the LOC, it also suggests that these melts were not highly oxidised, compared to typical arc basalts (fO2FMQ of >+2). This may in turn reflect the early (forearc) stage of subduction zone activity preserved by the LOC and implies that some of the arc tholeiitic and boninitic lava compositions preserved in the upper portion of the ophiolite are not genetically related to the mantle and lower crustal rocks, against which they exhibit tectonic contacts. Our new data also have implications for the use of ophiolite chromitites as recorders of mantle oxidation state through time; a global comparison suggests that the Fe3+/ΣFe signatures of ophiolite chromitites are likely to have more to do with local environmental petrogenetic conditions in sub-arc systems than large length-scale mantle chemical evolution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-400
Author(s):  
V.A. Makrygina

Abstract —Analysis of geochemical, geochronological, and new geophysical data on metasedimentary and igneous rocks of the Ol’khon region has made it possible to substantiate: (1) the absence of products of the Caledonian suprasubduction magmatism from the adjacent part of the Siberian craton and (2) the presence of a product of this magmatism in the Anga–Talanchan island arc, namely, the Krestovsky massif with gabbro-diorite to granite phases. This suggests subduction of the Paleoasian oceanic crust under the island arc before the collision. The geophysical data showed a steep sinking of the Siberian craton margin. This sinking and the supposed contrary movement and rotation of the Siberian craton prevented the appearance of a subduction zone beneath the craton during the collision but caused the wide development of fault plates in the fold belt at the late collision stage. The residue of oceanic crust slab was pressed out along the fault planes near the surface and formed a row of gabbro-pyroxenite massifs of the Birkhin Complex in the fold belt, where syncollisional granitic melts (Sharanur Complex) formed at the same time. The interaction of two contrasting melts gave rise to the Tazheran and Budun alkaline syenite massifs and alkaline metasomatites of the Birkhin and Ulanganta gabbroid massifs.


There are well established differences in the chemical and isotopic characteristics of the calc-alkaline basalt—andesite-dacite-rhyolite association of the northern (n.v.z.), central (c.v.z.) and southern volcanic zones (s.v.z.) of the South American Andes. Volcanic rocks of the alkaline basalt-trachyte association occur within and to the east of these active volcanic zones. The chemical and isotopic characteristics of the n.v.z. basaltic andesites and andesites and the s.v.z. basalts, basaltic andesites and andesites are consistent with derivation by fractional crystallization of basaltic parent magmas formed by partial melting of the asthenospheric mantle wedge containing components from subducted oceanic lithosphere. Conversely, the alkaline lavas are derived from basaltic parent magmas formed from mantle of ‘within-plate’ character. Recent basaltic andesites from the Cerro Galan volcanic centre to the SE of the c.v.z. are derived from mantle containing both subduction zone and within-plate components, and have experienced assimilation and fractional crystallization (a.f.c.) during uprise through the continental crust. The c.v.z. basaltic andesites are derived from mantle containing subduction-zone components, probably accompanied by a.f.c. within the continental crust. Some c.v.z. lavas and pyroclastic rocks show petrological and geochemical evidence for magma mixing. The petrogenesis of the c.v.z. lavas is therefore a complex process in which magmas derived from heterogeneous mantle experience assimilation, fractional crystallization, and magma mixing during uprise through the continental crust.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document