Geochemistry

Tectonics

Linguistics

Philosophy

Mantle (geology)

Volcanism

Archaeology

Volcano

Volcanic rock

Earth science

Turkish

Seismology

Plateau (mathematics)

Geology

Phenocryst

Paleontology

Structural basin

Mathematics

Geography

Peninsula

Mathematical analysis

Magmatism

Partial melting

Late Miocene

Gondwana Research

Post-collisional volcanism in northwestern Iran is represented by the Saray high-K rocks including leucite-bearing under-saturated and leucite-free silica saturated rocks. We report Ar–Ar age data which constrain the age as ca. 11 Ma (late Miocene). Most of clinopyroxene phenocrysts from the volcanic rocks have complex oscillatory zoning, with high Ti and Al cores, low Ti and high Al mantled clinopyroxenes, grading into low Ti and Al outer rims. All the rocks are highly enriched in incompatible trace elements and have identical Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes. Enrichment in incompatible elements and other geochemical features for the Saray lavas suggest a metasomatized sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) as the magma source. The negative Nb–Ta–Ti anomalies for the Saray lavas compare with the features of subduction-related magmatism with negligible contamination with ancient crustal components. The highly radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr and 207Pb/204Pb isotopic values of the Saray lavas imply the involvement of slab terrigenous sediments and/or a continental lithosphere. Isotopically, the volcanic rocks define a binary trend, representing 5–8% mixing between the primary mantle and sediment melts. Our melting models suggest residual garnet in the source and are incompatible with partial melting of amphibole and/or phlogopite bearing lherzolites, although the complex geochemical features might indicate the result of mixing between melts produced by different sources or a homogenous melt passing through a compositionally-zoned mantle during multiple stages of partial melting and melt migration. The geochronological, geochemical and isotopic data for the Saray rocks suggest that these Late Miocene magmas were derived from a small degree of partial melting of subduction-metasomatized (subcontinental) lithospheric mantle source in a post-collisional setting.

Late Miocene K-rich volcanism in the Eslamieh Peninsula (Saray), NW Iran: Implications for geodynamic evolution of the Turkish–Iranian High Plateau