H. Ghasemi; M. Rostami Hossuri; M. Sadeghian
Abstract
The Lower Jurassic basin of northern margin of central Iran structural zone and south of eastern Alborz in Semnan province, contains igneous rocks with basic composition, belonging to early stages of occurrence and development of an immature extensional back arc basin at this time. These basic igneous ...
Read More
The Lower Jurassic basin of northern margin of central Iran structural zone and south of eastern Alborz in Semnan province, contains igneous rocks with basic composition, belonging to early stages of occurrence and development of an immature extensional back arc basin at this time. These basic igneous rocks cropped out in at the base of Shemshak Formation and its equivalent in central Iran Structural zone, in the form of extrusive (basaltic rocks) and intrusive (dike, sill and microgabbroic small stocks) rocks. Magma forming of these rocks have had calc – alkaline nature and was enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and light rare earth elements (LREE) and also was depleted in heavy rare earth elements (HREE). The mentioned magmas was, originated from 5 to 30% partial melting of the spinel peridotitic (below the central Iran) and garnet lherzolithic (below the Eastern Alborz) mantle plumes in an immature extensional back arc basin tectonic setting due to oblique subduction of Nneothetyan oceanic lithosphere beneath the central Iran structural zone at late Triassic to middle Jurassic time, and were ascending to upper levels of continental crust by fault and fracture systems and emplaced in shallow sedimentary basins of these zones in different ways. This basin was formed in the behind of the upper Triassic – Lower Jurassic magmatic arc of central Iran and due to initiation of extensional movements in the continental crust of central Iran and Alborz.
H Ghasemi; M Rostami Hossuri; M Sadeghian; F Kadkhodaye Arab
Abstract
Subduction of the Neo–Tethyan oceanic lithosphere beneath the southern edge of the Central Iran caused development of extensional back-arc basins behind the Urumieh–Dokhtar magmatic belt during Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Some researchers have noted formation of the oceanic back-arc basins in ...
Read More
Subduction of the Neo–Tethyan oceanic lithosphere beneath the southern edge of the Central Iran caused development of extensional back-arc basins behind the Urumieh–Dokhtar magmatic belt during Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Some researchers have noted formation of the oceanic back-arc basins in Nain, Sabzevar and Sistan in Central Iran during Mesozoic, but little is known about generation of such basins in Cenozoic. The depressed extensional back-arc basin of Central Iran contains sedimentary successions of intracontinental extensional environments associated with alkaline basic magmatic rocks. These magmatic rocks are outcropped in the Oligo-Miocene gypsiferous red marls (red formations), as both intrusive (gabbro) and extrusive (basalt) forms. The present study has focused on the basaltic lava flows in the Oligo-Miocene siliciclastic-evaporitic sedimentary succession extending for about 300 kilometers from Sabzevar to Shahroud along the northern edge of Central Iran. These lava flows are observed as interbedded with the Oligo-Miocene sedimentary units. In the Kalate-Sadat area, located SW of Sabzevar, there are at least five intermittent basaltic lava flows in the red marls. These basaltic rocks (with a composition of olivine-basalt to basalt) show porphyritic, glomeroporphyritic and trachytic textures and are composed of olivine, clinopyroxene and plagioclase phenocrysts in a glassy to microlitic ground mass. On the basis of geochemical data, the parent magma of these rocks had a sodic-alkaline affinity, enriched in LILEs and LREEs and depleted in HREEs, without negative anomalies in HFSEs. The basalts show the geochemical characteristics of the basaltic magmas originated from partial melting of adjusted enriched garnet lherzolite mantle source beneath the continental areas of extensional back-arc basins.