Post-collision magmatism and tectonics in northwest Anatolia

A suite of biotite-hornblende granodiorite intrusions has been emplaced into blueschist-facies metasediments in northwest Anatolia, following collision between two continental margins, now represented by the Tavanli and Sakarya zones. The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of phengites and glaucophanes from the blueschists, metamorphosed under unusually high P-low T conditions (P=20±2 kbar, T=430±30° C), suggest that metamorphism apparently occurred over a period spanning at least 20 Ma from 108 to 88 Ma. Post-tectonic granodiorites were emplaced during the Eocene (53 to 48 Ma) resulting in a cordierite and andalusite-bearing thermal aureole, indicative of pressures of 3 kbar. Trace-element systematics of the granodiorites are consistent with a derivation either from mantle-derived magmas by fractional crystallisation in shallow magma chambers, or from anatexis of crustal lithologies of internediate composition at pressures <10 kbar. The preservation of high P-low T assemblages in the blueschists together with the range of ages determined for blueschist-facies metamorphism are indicative of rapid exhumation of delaminated fragments from a subducted continental margin. However decompression melting of the crust is unlikely to have been a significant cause of magmatism, both because exhumation of the blueschists from deep crustal levels predated magmatism by at least 25 Ma, and because of the small melt fraction (<0.1) that may be generated in crustal lithologies by this process. Melting in the mantle wedge is required either to generate a primary melt for the derivation of magmas of intermediate composition or to provide an advective heat source for crustal melting. The cause of melt formation in the upper mantle may be related to the termination of subduction following collision during the Mid-Eocene.