The Elaz1g region in eastern Taurus, Turkey, exposes Paleozoic-Tertiary metamorphic, magmatic, and sedimentary units. Contacts between the different units are mostly tectonic, but there are also primary sedimentary, and intrusive contacts. The metamorphic rocks of the Elaz1g region are the Bitlis-Pütürge and Keban-Malatya massifs, which are a single tectonostratigraphic unit that has been tectonically disrupted and fragmented during the Upper Cretaceous. Magmatic rocks in the region are represented by ophiolitic units, magmatic arc products, and young volcanic rocks. The sedimentary units are represented by Upper Cretaceous - Tertiary marine and lacustrine sedimentary rocks. In the study area, the metamorphic units are represented by the Paleozoic Pütürge metamorphic rocks composed of phyllite, slate, mica schist, quartz-muscovite schist, calc-schist, and low-grade metamorphite. The ophiolite that is described in this paper is composed of wehrlite-pyroxenite, gabbro, diabase dykes, and dykes cutting gabbro. These units are cut by the granitic rocks of the Upper Cretaceous Elaz1g magmatic suite. The lithological and geochemical data on the rocks of Kömürhan ophiolite indicate that these rocks were derived from crystallization of an enriched mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-type magma. The Kömürhan ophiolite formed in a supra-subduction spreading zone during the Cretaceous; related to this event is the north-dipping subduction of the southern branch of Neo-Tethys ocean, which began spreading in the Late Triassic. The crust was thickened by the development of an island arc and by the thrusting of the Pütürge metamorphic rocks onto this island arc in response to north-south compression during the Late Cretaceous. The magma formed by partial melting of the subducted slab giving rise to granitic rocks that cut the upper parts of the ophiolite. The ophiolite and the Elaz1g magmatic suite attained their present position after the Middle Eocene.
The mantle section of Guleman ophiolite, southeast (SE) Turkey consists mainly of harzburgites and dunite lenses and large chromitite pods. The average Cr ratio ¼ [100 Â Cr/(Cr þ Al) atomic ratio] of Crspinels in harzburgites and dunites is remarkably high (>63). The forsterite (Fo) content of olivine is between 90.9 and 92.3 in harzburgites and dunites. These features indicate that the harzburgites and dunites resulted from >35% of partial melting of a depleted mantle source. Discriminant geochemical diagrams based on the mineral chemistry of harzburgites indicate a supra-subduction zone (SSZ) origin. Orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene from the Guleman harzburgites have low CaO, Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 contents, resembling those of depleted harzburgites from modern forearcs and contrasting with moderately depleted abyssal peridotites. Consequently, we propose that the Guleman peridotites formed in a forearc setting during the subduction initiation that developed as a result of northward subduction of the southern branch of the Neo-Tethys in response to the convergence between the Arabian and Anatolian plates.
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