Detrital zircon evidence for exotic elements in the southern Neotethys: A provenance study of Triassic-Eocene rock units in the Kyrenia terrane, Northern Cyprus

Abstract

<p>Situated between Africa and Eurasia in the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has developed on the northern margin of the southern Neotethys by the accretion of three terrains, the Mamonia complex, the Troodos ophiolite, and the Kyrenia terrane. The Kyrenia terrane comprises a tectonic stack of Triassic to Eocene rock units interleaved with basic and acid volcanics and minor metamorphic inliers, alongside an Oligocene-Miocene flysch. Our U-Pb-Hf detrital zircon investigation in the Kyrenia Triassic to Eocene section reveals a large amount of Neoproterozoic zircons (950-600 Ma), alongside Silurian (∼430 Ma), Carboniferous (∼300 Ma), Triassic (∼240 Ma), and Upper Cretaceous (∼85 Ma) zircons. The Precambrian age profile of all three studied units resembles that of Paleozoic sandstones of the Tauride Block, as well as that of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sandstones found across North Africa. It is interpreted as reflecting the reworking of Paleozoic sandstone units from the Taurides or other peri-Gondwanan source. The presence of a substantial proportion of ~300 Ma zircons, as early as in Triassic sediments of the Kyrenia, is of significant interest because Carboniferous magmatism is confined to the Paleotethyan realm which is traced north of the Taurides. Deposition of the Kyrenia sequence closer to a Northern Tethyan province would better fit its detrital zircon signal. The detrital signal of the Kyrenia, indicative for Eurasian terranes north of the Mediterranean, also differs significantly from that of the Mamonia Complex (SW Cyprus) in which only Afro-Arabian sources are distinguished. Thus, in view of its unusual detrital zircon content, the Kyrenia sequence stands out in the Eastern Mediterranean as an exotic rock pile that cannot be straightforwardly correlated with its neighboring geologic environment.</p>