Çimen, Okay; Gücer, Mehmet Ali; Göncüoglu, Mehmet Cemal; Akal, Cuneyt; Arslan, Mehmet; Simonetti, Antonio; Karaoglan, Fatih

The & Idot;stanbul-Zonguldak Terrane is located in northwest Anatolia and includes several outcrops with pre-Cambrian basement units. The Karadere Basement Unit represents the easternmost basement of this terrane and is composed of paragneiss, quartzite, and orthogneiss. The paragneiss and quartzite are cut by orthogneisses and disconformably overlain by Lower Ordovician to Middle Devonian cover units. Its pre-Cambrian to Palaeozoic tectonic evolution remains poorly understood, and therefore, this study reports whole-rock trace element signatures, detrital zircon U-Pb, and muscovite Ar-Ar age data for samples of paragneiss, quartzite, amphibolite, and orthogneiss. The whole-rock geochemical data indicate that the protoliths of the paragneiss and quartzite samples investigated here could have been derived from arc-related felsic magmatic units located in an active continental margin. The protoliths of amphibolites and orthogneiss samples are gabbro and granite, respectively, and their geochemical signatures are akin to those from continental arc igneous suites. The detrital zircon U-Pb data are characterized by predominantly Mesoproterozoic (84%) and lesser amount of Palaeoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic ages and suggest an early Tonian (youngest peak age of 915 +/- 18 Ma) maximum depositional age. Moreover, zircon U-Pb dating analyses from an orthogneiss sample yielded an age of 603 +/- 2 Ma, indicating the occurrence of mid-Ediacaran arc magmatism. This represents one of the oldest Ediacaran ages obtained from the metamagmatic basement rocks of the & Idot;stanbul-Zonguldak Terrane. Ar-Ar dating of muscovite from ortho- and paragneiss samples yielded ages of 533 +/- 25 Ma and 530 +/- 9 Ma, respectively, which are interpreted as early Cambrian cooling ages. Overall, the combined results reported here reveal that the Karadere Basement Unit is markedly different from NE African basement units but displays similarities to the basement rocks of both Avalonian and Amazonian terranes. It may have been formed and metamorphosed in an Avalonian-Cadomian active continental margin during the mid- to late Neoproterozoic and early Cambrian.

Çimen, Okay; Gücer, Mehmet Ali; Simonetti, Antonio; Karaoglan, Fatih

The Dodurga Pluton is located within the Central Pontides (northern Turkiye), has a SW-NE elongation, and consists of granodiorite and dacite porphyry. Previous studies have suggested that this pluton is Triassic in age, and its whole-rock geochemical systematics is consistent with that from adakitic magmatic occurrences rather than the classic arc granitoid suite. This study reports for the first time in situ/whole-rock radiogenic isotopic (Sr, Nd, and Pb) and mica/amphibole Ar-Ar age data to evaluate better its petrogenetic/geodynamic evolution and the chemical nature of mantle source(s). Unlike previous data, combined new in situ zircon U-Pb yield Late Cretaceous crystallization ages of 84.2 +/- 0.9 Ma and 86.9 +/- 0.9 Ma, and the Ar-Ar age data along with apatite fission track measurements suggest magma cooling extending to 82.3 +/- 0.4 Ma and 85.4 +/- 0.4 Ma, respectively. The apatite fission track (AFT) dating results also reveal that this pluton was buried at a depth of 2.5-3 km following a fast-cooling period during the Late Cretaceous and cooled/exhumed over similar to 2 km during the Middle-Late Miocene (15-10 Ma) in a slow cooling phase. The overall data reported here suggest that the Dodurga Pluton represents melts derived from an enriched/metasomatized mantle source that interacted with lower crustal mafic rocks in an active continental margin as a result of northward subduction of the northern branch of the Neotethys Ocean.

Cimen, Okay; Gucer, Mehmet Ali; Akal, Cueneyt; Goncueoglu, Mehmet Cemal; Arslan, Mehmet; Simonetti, Antonio; Karaoglan, Fatih

The pre -Jurassic tectonic evolution of the Central Pontides in northern Turkey is still poorly understood due to the lack of detailed geochemical and geochronological data from the basement units. Therefore, this study reports for the first time combined whole rock geochemistry, trace element data and U-Pb ages for detrital zircons, and Ar-Ar geochronological data from the metasedimentary rocks of the Devrekani Massif, Geme Complex, and the Serve & ccedil;ay Unit to better understand their provenance, depositional age characteristics, and tectonic evolutions. The detrital zircon U-Pb data of metasedimentary units from the Devrekani Massif, Geme Complex, and the Serve & ccedil;ay Unit yield ca. 191, 185 and 298 Ma maximum depositional ages (youngest age peaks), respectively. The Devrekani Massif is dominated by Permo-Carboniferous-aged detrital zircons (67 %), whereas Neoproterozoic and Devonian -aged detrital zircons are more common in the Geme Complex (47 %) and the Serve & ccedil;ay Unit (53 %). These distinct age distributions clearly indicate that the Devrekani Massif may has been deposited in a dissimilar location compared to the Geme Complex and the Serve & ccedil;ay Unit. Furthermore, in contrast to the Devrekani Massif, the source area of the metasedimentary rocks from the Geme Complex is comparable with that of the Serve & ccedil;ay Unit. Lastly, the obtained detrital zircon U-Pb and mica Ar-Ar ages suggest that the Devrekani Massif and the Geme Complex were deposited and metamorphosed during the Early and Middle Jurassic, respectively. The Serve & ccedil;ay Unit was deposited and metamorphosed in the Permian.