Significance and Petrochemistry of Upper Mantle–mantle Transition Zone Metaperidotites and Oceanic Crust Metagabbros within the Kazdağı Metaophiolite: Implications for the Geological Evolution of the Izmir–Ankara–Erzincan Ocean, Northwestern Turkey

Abstract

AbstractThe Kazdağı metaophiolite crops out in the Kazdağı (Ida) Mountains in the Biga Peninsula in northwestern Turkey. It is in stratigraphic contact with the high–grade metamorphic rocks of the Kazdağı Massif. Metaophiolitic and high–grade metamorphic rocks are tectonically overlain by low–grade metamorphic units of the Permo‐Triassic Karakaya Complex of the Sakarya Zone. Late Oligocene‐Early Miocene granites intruded these tectonic units (Okay and Satır, 2000; Duru et al. 2012).In the Kazdağı metaophiolitic sequence, upper mantle peridotites are represented by metaharzburgite and metadunite, whereas the mantle transition zone metaperidotites are composed of metadunite, metapyroxenite and minor plagioclase‐bearing metalherzolite. The upper part of the metadunites in the mantle transition zone show intercalation with metagabbros. Gabbros of oceanic crust experienced amphibolite facies metamorphism and are transformed into amphibolite, garnet amphibolite and migmatitic gabbros. The metagabbros and amphibolites display MORB‐ and IAT‐like geochemical features.The Kazdağı metaophiolite is conformably overline by basal conglomerates and hemi‐pelagic carbonate rocks continuing upward into forearc‐type flysch–like detrital sedimentary rocks interspersed with mafic volcanic intervals. These cover units underwent high–grade metamorphism into gneisses, migmatites, amphibolites and marbles in a compressional regime during the Alpine orogeny. New U–Pb zircon data from the metagabbros show two crystallization peaks at ∼52 Ma and ∼73 Ma. This has implications for the age of subduction of the Izmir–Ankara–Erzincan Ocean, generally assumed to be northward under the Sakarya Zone. During the Triassic to Middle Eocene, progressive overthrusting of the Sakarya Zone via a N–S compresional regime created by the Alpine orogeny onto subduction–accretion‐ and forearc‐units resulted in high–grade metamorphic conditions in the Biga Peninsula.