Mineral chemistry and P–T conditions of the winchite-bearing metabasic rocks in the NE edge of the Menderes Massif (Western Türkiye)

Abstract

The Menderes massif is a large metamorphic crystalline complex located in western Turkey. The massif consists of late Neoproterozoic basement (core) rocks and Palaeozoic - Cenozoic cover units that have undergone by high- and low-grade polyphase metamorphisms. Palaeozoic to Mesozoic cover units cropped out in the NE edge of the massif (east of Sivaslı) are overlaid tectonically by upper Cretaceous meta-ophiolitic rocks. The meta-ophiolitic unit comprises blocks mainly of metabasalt, metagabbro, metadiorite and metaultramafite within an intensively sheared serpentinite matrix. It also includes blocks of epidote-actinolite-schist and tremolite-actinolite-schist, which originated from basic rocks, as well as chlorite schist blocks, which originated from ultramafic rocks. Sodic-calcic amphiboles recorded in the samples of metabasalt block taken from the marble-metabasalt block boundary, at the tectonic contact where the meta-ophiolitic rocks overlap the underlying marble sequence. Sodic-calcic amphiboles were classified into winchite and ferri-winchite with relatively homogeneous TSi (7.35–8.01 a.p.f.u.), and XMg (0.69–0.80) values. P-T conditions were estimated to be around 300–400 °C and 5–6 kb based on the mineral chemical analyses of the sodic-calcic amphiboles. According to these values, the NE edge of the Menderes Massif must have undergone metamorphism under a medium-pressure (MP) greenschist facies.