R Kohansal; M Ghorbani; S.M Pourmafi; M Khalatbari Jafari; J Omrani
Abstract
The Forumad ophiolite pillow lavas crop out at west of Sabzevar and at the periphery of north central Iran microcontinent. These lavas include Upper Cretaceous pelagic limestone with microfossils and are classified in two Late Turonian- Santonian and Coniacian- Late Campanian groups. These basaltic ...
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The Forumad ophiolite pillow lavas crop out at west of Sabzevar and at the periphery of north central Iran microcontinent. These lavas include Upper Cretaceous pelagic limestone with microfossils and are classified in two Late Turonian- Santonian and Coniacian- Late Campanian groups. These basaltic pillow lavas have tubular and flattened forms, with external (vitrified), medial (variolite) and internal (intergranuler) parts. Each part has its own texture with mineral composition of clinopyroxene ± plagioclase ± olivine. The medial part is characterized by formation of skeletal crystals of olivine and lesser extend of plagioclase, indicating high nucleation rate. The nature of Late Turonian- Santonian lavas is tholeiitic and Coniacian- Late Campanian lavas are tholeiitic and calc-alkaline. Despite of enrichment in LILE, relative depletion of HFSE, different enrichment in LREE and various linear trends of HREE which suggest the formation of pillow lavas in the arc environment and the heterogeneous mantle with varying degrees of partial melting, but low ratios of Th/ Yb, La/ Nb, Ce/ Nb and Ce/ Th indicate that they are more inclined to intermediate between IAB and MORB environments. Unlike Late Turonian – Santonian lavas, high ratios of La/Yb, Nb/ Yb in Late Coniacian – Late Campanian lavas represent mantle fertility and decrease of Nb/ Ta ratios as well as relative increase of Th exhibit the effect of partial melting of subducted slab in genesis of these lavas. The depth of partial melting was 40 to 70 km in the spinel lherzolite stability zone. It seems that the formation of Forumad ophiolitic pillow lavas is accrued in a marginal basin to a back arc basin of a supra-subduction zone.
R Kohansal; M Ghorbani; S.M Pourmoafi; M Khalatbari Jafari; J Omrani; S Zolfaghari; S Soleimani
Abstract
Abstract The Forumadophiolitic rocks as a part of Iran marginal microcontinentophiolites have been situated in the western part of Sabzevarophiolite. Field study shows extrusive sequence in this area with Late Cretaceous in age. This sequence has included basaltic pillow lavas with radiolarian chert ...
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Abstract The Forumadophiolitic rocks as a part of Iran marginal microcontinentophiolites have been situated in the western part of Sabzevarophiolite. Field study shows extrusive sequence in this area with Late Cretaceous in age. This sequence has included basaltic pillow lavas with radiolarian chert related to Late Turonian-Santonian, in contrast to Coniacian- Late Campanian age, when this sequence has composed of basaltic pillow lavas in lower - middle part and various tuffs in upper part. Sheet flows, hyaloclasticbreccias and pelagic limestone are intercalations between lavas and tuffs.Abundantly, pillow lavas with phyric texture are most predominant feature contrast with sheet flows. Whereas enrichment of LILE and depletion of some HFSE (Nb, Ta) exhibit subduction environment (island arcs) for pillow lavas of Forumad, and different enrichment in LREE to HREE displays unhomogenous mantle in the generation of them; the presence of two magmatic nature in lavas (tholeiitic and calc-alkaline), their positions in tectonomagmatic diagrams and clear enrichment of Th element in Late Turonian –Santonian lavas which are generally exhibition of ophiolitic extrusive sequence in Forumad area have been generated in a supra-subduction environment and back-arc basin.