Geological Development of Anatolia and the Easternmost Mediterranean Region
Anatolia and the easternmost Mediterranean region, especially Turkey, Cyprus and northern Syria, represent an excellent natural laboratory for the study of fundamental geological processes (e.g. rifting, seafloor spreading, ophiolite genesis and emplacement, subduction, exhumation and collision). Their interaction has created an intriguing array of deep-sea basins, microcontinents and suture zones.
The volume’s 22 papers include a large amount of new field-based information (much of it multidisciplinary and the product of teamwork). After an overview, the volume is divided into four sections: Late Palaeozoic–Early Cenozoic of the Pontides (northern Turkey); Late Palaeozoic–Early Cenozoic of the Taurides–Anatolides (central and southern Turkey); Late Cretaceous–Pliocene sedimentary basins and structural development (central Anatolia to the Mediterranean); Late Miocene–Recent Neotectonics (southern Turkey, Cyprus and northern Syria).
The volume will interest numerous academic researchers, those concerned with resources (e.g. hydrocarbons; mineral deposits) and also hazards (e.g. earthquakes), as well as advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Petrology of the İspendere (Malatya) ophiolite from the Southeast Anatolia: implications for the Late Mesozoic evolution of the southern Neotethyan Ocean
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Published:January 01, 2013
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CiteCitation
Osman Parlak, Fatih Karaoğlan, Tamer Rizaoğlu, Nusret Nurlu, Utku Bağci, Volker Höck, Ayten Öztüfekçi Önal, Sevcan Kürüm, Yusuf Topak, 2013. "Petrology of the İspendere (Malatya) ophiolite from the Southeast Anatolia: implications for the Late Mesozoic evolution of the southern Neotethyan Ocean", Geological Development of Anatolia and the Easternmost Mediterranean Region, A. H. F. Robertson, O. Parlak, U. C. Ünlügenç
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Abstract
The İspendere ophiolite forms part of the Tauride active continental margin assemblage in SE Anatolia. The ophiolite exhibits an intact oceanic lithosphere section and is intruded by Late Cretaceous calc-alkaline granites. The ophiolite comprises mantle tectonites, ultramafic to mafic cumulates, isotropic gabbros, isolated diabase dykes, a sheeted dyke complex, plagiogranite and volcanic rocks. The volcanics and the sheeted dyke complex exhibit (1) similar rare earth element patterns, with flat to light rare earth element depletion (La–Yb)N=0.71–1.14 and 0.65–1.22, (2) negative Nb anomalies and (3) flat-lying high field strength element trends. These features differ from a typical Normal--Mid Ocean Ridge Basalt fractionation trend and could have resulted from c. 15% partial melting of a previously depleted mantle source. The whole-rock chemistry and the mineral chemistry of the ultramafic to mafic cumulates [high Ca plagioclases (An89–81), magnesian olivines (Fo88–81) and clinopyroxenes (Mg#90–83)] show that the primary magma of the plutonic suite is compositionally similar to modern island arc tholeiites. The available evidence suggests that the İspendere ophiolite formed at a northerly supra-subduction zone spreading centre of the Southern Neotethys, between the Taurides and the Bitlis–Pütürge metamorphic units, during the Late Cretaceous. Comparison with the adjacent Göksun, Kömürhan and Guleman ophiolites suggests that the İspendere ophiolite represents part of a single regional-scale sheet of oceanic lithosphere that was accreted to the base of Tauride active continental margin where it was cut by arc-type magmatic rocks.