Geochemistry of mafic rocks of the Karakaya complex,Turkey: evidence for plume-involvement in the Palaeotethyan extensional regime during the Middle and Late Triassic

The Karakaya Complex within the Early Mesozoic Cimmerian Orogeny in northern Turkey represents the remnants of the Palaeotethys. It includes slivers and/or mega-blocks of slightly metamorphic basic volcanic rocks associated with fossiliferous sediments as well as hypabyssal and intrusive rocks with basaltic-andesitic to ultramafic compositions. They display two distinct compositional groups; namely alkaline and variably tholeiitic. The alkaline basalt samples are more akin to oceanic-island basalts (OIB) with relatively enriched trace element characteristics together with strong partitioning in HREE (La/Yb]_N = 5.8–16.2), suggesting that garnet is present as a residual phase in the source of those basalts. The variably tholeiitic samples apart from diabases display E-MORB characteristics; being relatively depleted compared to the alkaline counterparts and less fractionated REE patterns (La/Yb]_N = 2.1–3.6). The diabases, on the other hand, are distinctively different with a significant negative Nb anomaly (Zr/Nb = 28.9–43.4) and flat REE patterns (La/Yb]_N = 0.8–1.4), suggesting their generation above a supra-subduction zone, probably a back-arc basin. These results may suggest that a mantle plume-related magmatism associated with extensional oceanic system should have been installed within Palaeotethys during Middle-Late Triassic time, which was then incorporated into subduction–accretion prism forming the final picture, that is, “the Karakaya Complex”.