Petrogenesis of Neogene Basaltic Volcanism
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PETROGENESIS OF NEOGENE BASALTIC VOLCANISM ASSOCIATED WITH THE LUT BLOCK, EASTERN IRAN: IMPLICATION FOR TECTONIC AND METALLOGENIC EVOLUTION by SAEED SAADAT M.Sc., Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran 1997 B.Sc., Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran 1991 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geological Sciences 2010 This thesis entitled: PETROGENESIS OF NEOGENE BASALTIC VOLCANISM ASSOCIATED WITH THE LUT BLOCK, EASTERN IRAN: IMPLICATION FOR TECTONIC AND METALLOGENIC EVOLUTION written by Saeed Saadat has been approved for the Department of Geological Sciences by _____________________________________ Charles R. Stern _______________________________________ G. Lang Farmer Date______________ The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. iii Saadat, Saeed (Ph.D., Geological Sciences) Petrogenesis of Negene basaltic volcanism associated with the Lut block, eastern Iran: implication for tectonic and metallogenic evolution Dissertation directed by Professor Charles R. Stern This dissertation presents petrochemical data concerning Neogene olivine basalts erupted both along the margins and within the micro-continental Lut block, eastern Iran, which is a part of the active Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt. These data demonstrate the following: 1) Basalts that erupted from small monogenetic parasitic cones around the Bazman stratovolcano, Makran arc area, in the southern Lut block, are low-Ti sub-alkaline olivine basalts. Enrichments of LILE relative to LREE, and depletions in Nb and Ta relatively to LILE, are similar to those observed for other convergent plate boundary arc magmas around the world and suggest that these basalts formed by melting of subcontinental mantle modified by dehydration of the subducted Oman Sea oceanic lithosphere. 2) Northeast of Iran, an isolated outcrop of Neogene/Quaternary alkali olivine basalt, containing mantle and crustal xenoliths, formed by mixing of small melt fractions from both garnet and spinel-facies mantle. These melts rose to the surface along localized pathways associated with extension at the junction between the N-S right-lateral strike-slip faults and E-W left-lateral strike slip faults. The spinel-peridotite mantle xenoliths contained in the basalts, which equilibrated in the subcontinental lithosphere at depths of 30 to 60 km and temperatures of 965°C to 1065°C, do not preserve evidence of extensive metasomatic enrichment as has been inferred for the mantle below the Damavand volcano further to the west in north-central Iran. iii 3) Neogene mafic rocks within the central Lut block represent the last manifestation of a much more extensive mid-Tertiary magmatic event. These basalts formed from both OIB-like asthenosphere and subcontinental lithosphere which preserved chemical characteristics inherited from mid-Tertiary subduction associated with the collision of the Arabian with the Eurasian plate and closing of the Neotethys Ocean. Neogene/Quternary alkali olivine basalts erupted mainly along the major faults that bound the Lut block on the east and west. These low-volumes, low- degree melts have been formed by low variable degrees of partial melting of mantle source produced by upwelling asthenosphere replaced the thinned lithospheric mantle. iv DEDICATION To my ever-patient and ever-loving wife, Fatemeh, and our children, Setareh and Soroush and to the memories of my mother v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First most, I thank God for all his blessings and allowing me to survey a small portion of the Earth. Second most, I would like to thank my academic advisor, Charles Stern, for providing me the topic, helping to introducing me to it, and also dedicating a lot of time for correcting this thesis. I am proud to have completed this research under his expert tutelage. I am also grateful for the time and support given to me by my other committee members: Lang Farmer, Roger Bilham, Mohammad Hassan Karimpour, Brian Hynek and Khalid Hussien. Special thanks also for Lang Farmer who let me work in isotope lab and for always having his door open to answer my questions and giving me very useful comments. In addition, I thank Karl Mueller for preparing the satellite image, Peter Molnar for useful references, Alex Skewes for kind advice and encouragement, and also Mary Kraus for her role in helping me with financial support from the Department of Geological Sciences during the first two years of my education. I want to thank several people at the University of Colorado for provided me technical support. Emily Verplank trained me for my work in the isotope lab, and without her endless patience and guidance I could not have completed the lab work required for this study. I am also grateful to John Drexler for his help with electron microprobe and Fred Luiszer for trace elements determination, Dan Mitchell for keeping my computers running, and Paul Boni for his help and advice for preparing the thin and polished thin sections. I wish to thank to all my other colleagues, who have helped me throughout my work and have been good friends. Here I would like to mention Alexis Ault, Kristin Halberg Jacob, Treasure Bailley and Kurt Refsnider. In addition, I would like to thank the Department of Geological Sciences office staff, Marcia Lynne Kelly, Babara Amaral, Tiernen Carter McConaughy, and Joanne Brunetti, and also special thank to Carrie Simon from the graduate office, who dealt with problems and still smiled. vi Outside of the University of Colorado, I have benefited greatly from discussions and references provided by Mark Allen, Charles Verdel and Richard Walker. The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without my Iranian friends Ghaemi, Ghoorchi, Shojaei, Saadati, Kamkar, Hemmati, Abbasian, Abbasnia, Ajayebi, Asghari, Nazemi, Moradian, Ghazanfari, Shajiee, Anis and Siavash Karimpour: Thank you all for everything you have given me. I also would like to thank Malekzadeh for measuring the major elements in Ferdowsi University of Mashad (Iran) and Geological Survey of Iran, Kerman branch, for providing some samples from the study area. I am deeply indebted to my dear sister, Hekmat, who treated our father so well during my stay here. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Geological Sciences at University of Colorado, the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG), Shell Oil Company and the family of Jeffrey Deen for support. I reserve the deepest gratitude for my dear wife, Fatemeh, and our children, Setareh and Soroush, whose love, support and understanding are seemingly infinite. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I .................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Problems addressed ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 General background and previous work ............................................................................ 4 1.3 Analytical techniques ......................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER II ................................................................................................................................... 9 Petrochemistry and genesis of olivine basalts from small monogenetic parasitic cones of Bazman stratovolcano, Makran arc, southeastern Iran ................................................................................. 9 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Geological and tectonic setting ........................................................................................ 10 2.3 Results.............................................................................................................................. 16 2.3.1 Petrography .......................................................................................................... 16 2.3.2 Mineral compositions ........................................................................................... 17 2.3.3 Whole rock compositions ..................................................................................... 18 2.3.4 Radiogenic isotopes .............................................................................................. 28 2.4 Discussion and conclusions ............................................................................................. 31 2.4.1 Makran arc basaltic magma genesis ..................................................................... 31 2.4.2 Variations in magma generation processes along the Makran arc ....................... 38 viii 2.4.3 Makran arc compared to other Iran volcanic arcs ................................................ 39 CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................................... 44 Petrochemistry of mantle xenoliths and