Direklo-Mehdikhan Alkaline Basalt District, an Indication of a Quaternary Continental Within Plate Extensional Mechanism

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

In the northeast of Kurdistan Province, in Qorveh County, between the villages of Mehdikhan and Direklo, there is a region of alkaline basanite rocks located on Quaternary sediments. Examination of thin sections prepared from the region's rocks has revealed that they contain olivine, clinopyroxene, and plagioclase phenocrysts, which reside within a matrix of fine plagioclase, pyroxene, opaque minerals, and brown volcanic glass. Beyond the chemical zoning and sieve texture, the pyroxenes also exhibit sericite and glomerular textures. The presence of these textures may suggest magmatic contamination and magmatic imbalance. Furthermore, Harker diagrams indicate evidence of differential crystallization. Additional geochemical characteristics, such as negative anomalies in Nb, Ta, and Y, enrichment in Th/Yb, positive anomalies in Th, Ba, and Pb, LILE enrichment, high LREE content, and the ratios Ce/Sm, Sm/Yb, Nb/La, La/Yb, Th/Yb, and Ta/Yb all suggest that the magma forming the Mehdikhan-Dirklo basanite zone originated from partial melting (less than 5%) of a garnet lherzolite mantle source, enriched by fluids from the subducted slab. The eruption of this basanite zone occurred in a post-collisional extensional environment.

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Petrological Journal

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 March 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 07 January 2025
  • Revise Date: 12 March 2025
  • Accept Date: 15 March 2025

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