Uysal, Ibrahim; Dokuz, Abdurrahman; Kapsiotis, Argyrios; Saka, Samet; Karsli, Orhan; Kaliwoda, Melanie; Mueller, Dirk

The eastern Orhaneli ophiolite in NW Anatolia (Turkey) consists of voluminous dunite and minor harzburgite intruded by clinopyroxenite veins. Harzburgite contains spinel of low Cr# [100 x Cr/(Cr + Al) = 40-45] and diopside of low Al2O3 and TiO2 contents, whereas dunite contains spinel of higher Cr# (62-82) and diopside (blebs) (even more) depleted in Al2O3 and TiO2 (than harzburgite). The concentrations of Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREE) in harzburgite are consistent with derivation of this type of peridotite from 19% dry melting of a fertile mantle protolith at a MOR regime. Dunites have lower concentrations of HREE than harzburgite implying that dunites were generated by higher degrees (> 30%) of (cumulative) melting of the same protolith. Furthermore, the characteristic U-shapes of the chondrite-normalized REE-patterns of dunites indicate the involvement of hydrous melt-peridotite interaction processes in their genesis. Nevertheless, a set of mosaic-in texture dunite samples contain olivine that has lower Fo# [100 x Mg/(Mg + Fe2+)] and NiO contents than olivine in harzburgite. These dunites are probably of cumulate origin as it is also indicated by their enrichment in Pt and Pd (<= 17.92 ppb). Micro-textural and Re-Os isotopic data support that clinopyroxenite intrusions do not have a pure magmatic origin and their formation was partly controlled by metasomatic processes. Overall data indicate that the eastern Orhaneli ultramafic rocks have a complex petrological history including various stages of partial melting, metasomatism and magmatism in an evolving from MOR to SSZ geotectonic setting.

Karsli, Orhan; Dokuz, Abdurrahman; Kaliwoda, Melanie; Uysal, Ibrahim; Aydin, Faruk; Kandemir, Raif; Fehr, Karl-Thomas

The Eastern Pontides in NE Turkey is one of the major orogenic belts in Anatolia. In this paper, we report our new 40Ar/39Ar dating, mineral chemistry, major and trace elements and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic analyses of the lamprophyre intrusions in this region. The lamprophyres are widely scattered and intrude Late Carboniferous granitoid rocks. The lamprophyres exhibit fine-grained textures and are mineralogically uniform. Hornblende 40Ar/39Ar dating yielded a plateau age of 216.01±10.64Ma. Based on their geochemistry, mineral compositions and paragenesis, the lamprophyres are classified as calc-alkaline lamprophyres in general and spessartites in particular, which are rich in large ion lithophile elements (e.g., Rb, Ba, K) but depleted in Nb and Ti. Our samples exhibit moderate fractionation in LREE patterns approximately 100 times that of chondrite but HREE abundances less than 10 times that of chondrite. These calc-alkaline lamprophyres display a range of ISr (216Ma) values from 0.70619 to 0.71291 and εNd (216Ma) values from -1.4 to 4.1, with TDM=1.11 to 2.20Ga. Their Pb isotopic ratios indicate an enriched mantle source. The enrichment process is related to metasomatism of a subcontinental lithospheric mantle source, which is caused by a large quantity of H2O-rich fluids, rather than sediments released from oceanic crust at depth during the closure of the Paleotethys Ocean in Triassic times. All of the geochemical data and the trace element modeling suggest that the primary magma of the calc-alkaline to high-K calc-alkaline spessartites was generated at depth by a low degree of partial melting (~1-10%) of a previously enriched lithospheric mantle wedge consisting of phlogopite-bearing spinel peridotite. The ascendance of a hot asthenosphere triggered by extensional events caused partial melting of mantle material. The rising melts were accompanied by fractional crystallization and crustal contamination en route to the surface. All of the geochemical features combined with regional data suggest that the Eastern Pontides calc-alkaline lamprophyres originated in an extensional environment along an active continental margin throughout the Late Triassic. Such an extensional event, causing upwelling of hot asthenosphere, led to the opening of the northern branch of the Neotethys as a back-arc basin farther south of the Eastern Pontides.

Dokuz, Abdurrahman; Uysal, Ibrahim; Kaliwoda, Melanie; Karsli, Orhan; Ottley, Chris J.; Kandemir, Raif

The boundary between the Gondwana and Laurussia, or a terrane separated from it, is traced by a suture recording the closure of the Rheic ocean in the Pulur, Beyçam and Kurtoǧlu areas of the eastern Sakarya Zone of Turkey. Pulur lherzolite has a lower Cr# [100Cr/(Cr+Al)=5-37] of the spinel and slightly enriched flat medium-heavy rare earth element (M-HREE) whole-rock pattern typical for those of the fertile abyssal-type lherzolite. By contrast, the Beyçam harzburgite displays the mineralogical and geochemical features of a moderately depleted residue at a supra subduction zone (SSZ). Some of spinels from the Beyçam peridotites show TiO2 contents (0.15-0.48wt.%) identical to a later interaction with a melt of island-arc tholeiite (IAT) composition. Meta-basalt from the Beyçam area is the representative of such a melt and displays the whole-rock M-HREE pattern of a complementary product of the Beyçam harzburgite. Data presented in this study support the primarily northward directed closure of the Rheic ocean, but suggest that the Variscan basement in the eastern part of the Sakarya Zone consists of mantle peridotites formed in a south-vergent SSZ. This dual polarity of subduction in the Rheic ocean, at least in the second half of its closure, is also favored by the geological structure and lithological diversity of the Variscan rocks. These are: (1) spatial distribution of the peridotites, e.g., SSZ-type harzburgites to the north and abyssal-type lherzolites to the south, (2) lack of high-pressure metamorphic rocks, (3) decrease in the degree of Variscan metamorphism toward the north, and (4) emplacement of Variscan syn-collisional magmatism into the low grade metamorphic rocks to the north. Paleotethys was the other ocean of the region created in the Late Paleozoic. Northward subduction of the Rheic ocean from Early Devonian to Early Carboniferous appears to be the most plausible mechanism responsible for the opening of Paleotethys. In this scenario the Paleotethys is envisaged as a back-arc basin opened to the north in the wake of separated terranes from Laurussia. Onset of trench-Rheic mid-ocean ridge collision in the Early Devonian along the northern margin of Laurussia has been proposed to account for the initiation of SSZ-type subduction to the south. The short duration of this subduction appears insufficient to open a fully developed back-arc basin to the south because the elimination of Rheic mid-ocean ridge to the north accelerated the oceanic closure.

Uysal, Ibrahim; Kaliwoda, Melanie; Karsli, Orhan; Tarkian, Mahmud; Sadiklar, M. Burhan; Ottley, Chris J.

The bulk composition (major and trace elements) and the composition of minerals in peridotites of the Ortaca area, south-western Turkey, have been investigated to understand the processes controlling lithological and compositional variations in the dismembered mantle section, containing clinopyroxene-bearing harzburgite, harzburgite and dunite. The Ortaca peridotites vary from almost fertile clinopyroxene-bearing harzburgite (1.92-2.42 wt% Al2O3, 2.00-2.64% CaO) with a lower Cr# of the spinel phase (<24) to depleted harzburgite and dunite (0.17-1.60% Al2O3, 0.32-1.71% CaO) with a higher Cr# of the spinel phase (31-76). Systematic variations of major and trace elements of whole rocks and mineral phases are related to varying degrees of partial melting (up to 30%). The depleted harzburgite and dunite display LREE-enriched primitive-mantle-normalized patterns, suggesting mantle metasomatism, probably by fluid-bearing melt derived from the subducted slab, due to the melt-rock interaction process, whereas clinopyroxene-bearing harzburgite show HREE-enriched patterns. The Ortaca peridotites have low temperatures of equilibration relative to abyssal peridotites, because of H2O-assisted diffusional equilibration in the suprasubduction zone. They are characterized by oxygen fugacities Δlog FMQ between -1.61 and +0.74. Clearly, the clinopyroxene-bearing harzburgites define an increasing oxygen fugacity with almost constant Cr#, whereas the refractory harzburgite and dunite show a strong positive correlation between oxygen fugacity and Cr#. In view of the different measurements on minerals and whole rocks, and as a result of calculated temperatures and oxygen fugacities, we contend that the peridotites were subsequently affected by percolating hydrous boninitic melt, from which the high-Cr, low-Ti chromitites were formed, surrounded by a dunite envelope. It is likely that such an envelope of dunite resulted from interaction between melt and harzburgite, which caused the local removal of orthopyroxene within the mantle wedge above the suprasubduction zone.