Abstract:
In the Aegean region, complex geodynamic processes including subduction, continent-continent collision, and back-arc extension occurred from the Eocene to the present time. In NW Anatolia (Turkey), the products of these events are widely exposed. Especially, Miocene granites along the northern border of the Menderes Massif demonstrate prominent geologic features associated with these complex geodynamic events. In order to determine the magmatic evolution of the northern boundary of the Menderes Massif and to understand its tectono-magmatic position in the Aegean region, during and after the collision of the Anatolide-Tauride platform with the Sakarya Continent, two regions in NW Anatolia (Simav and Alaçam regions) were examined by detailed mapping, geochemical, isotopic and geochronological studies.
After the closure of the Neo-Tethys and the collision of the Menderes Platform with the Sakarya Continent during the Cretaceous, a nappe package consisting of four main tectonic zones was formed in NW Anatolia. These are: (1) Menderes metamorphics, (2) Meta-ophiolithic nappe complex, (3) Afyon Zone, and (4) Bornova Flysch Zone. This nappe package, stacked together by the collision, was intruded and stitched by Early Miocene granitic plutons that constitute a NE-SW trending magmatic belt that evolved in a thick continental crust. In the Simav region, Eðrigöz and Koyunoba granites are intrusive to the Menderes Metamorphics and Afyon Zone. In the Alaçam region, the Alaçam granite shows clear cross-cutting relations with the Menderes Massif, Afyon Zone, and Bornova Flysch Zone. The Eðrigöz, Koyunoba, and Alaçam are undeformed magmatic bodies and present similar geological, geochemical, isotopic, and geochronological features. They are shallow-seated bodies (2-7 km), granite-granodiorite and monzogranite in composition, and are I-type, calc-alkaline in nature. Their Sr-Nd-Pb-O isotopes are in line with derivation from lower-to middle crustal source lithologies. It can be demonstrated that crustal assimilation during the magma generation played an important role. Radiogenic age determinations from the granites show that the U-Pb zircon crystallization ages are between 19.4 ± 4.4 Ma for the Eðrigöz granite, 21.7 ± 1.0 Ma for the Koyunoba granite, 20.0 ± 1.4 Ma, and 20.3 ± 3.3 Ma for the Alaçam granite and from its related stock. Mica cooling ages of 18.77 ± 0.19 Ma for the Eðrigöz granite and early Miocene (20.01 ± 0.20 Ma and 20.17 ± 0.20 Ma) cooling ages of the Alaçam granite and its related stocks were also obtained by Rb-Sr (whole rock, biotite) analyses which indicate rapid cooling. Moreover, U-Pb zircon ages from the country rocks of the Miocene granites yield 30.04 ± 0.56 Ma for a metagranite of the Menderes Massif in Simav region and 314.9 ± 2.7 Ma for gneissic granite of the Afyon Zone in the Alaçam region, which were both previously interpreted as a sheared part of the Miocene Eðrigöz and Alaçam granites.
Field occurrences, geochemical, isotopic characteristics and geochronological data obtained from the Eðrigöz, Koyunoba and Alaçam granites show close similarities with other Oligo-Miocene granitoids in northwestern Anatolia. It is concluded that all granitoids from this belt emplaced along an E-W trending regional zone in a compressional regime, rather than representing individual bodies related to local, north-dipping, low-angle detachment faults, as suggested in previous papers.