Abstract
Pumice beds of the Maragheh Formation, which is distributed on the plains at the foot of the late Cenozoic Sahand volcano, NW Iran, consist of the Mordaq tuff bed, lower pumice beds (A and B), middle pumice bed and upper pumice bed, in ascending order. New hornblende and plagioclase K–Ar ages of the pumices from these are: Mordaq tuff bed: 8.14 ± 0.27 Ma, lower pumice beds (A): 7.54 ± 0.22 Ma, lower pumice beds (B): 6.95 ± 0.28 Ma, middle pumice bed: 7.87 ± 0.29 Ma, upper pumice bed: 6.96 ± 0.31 Ma. The middle pumice bed is a flood deposit, and the chemical compositions of glass, hornblende and biotite in pumices overlap those from the lower pumice beds (A). These features indicate that the pumices of the middle pumice bed were derived from a similar source to the lower pumice beds (A). Chemical compositions of pumices from the Maragheh Formation fall in the dacite field of the total alkali-silica (TAS) classification diagram and slightly differ from those of the Plio–Pleistocene rocks from the Sahand volcano. Chemical compositions of late Miocene Maragheh Formation pumices show adakitic features with high Sr contents (698–545 ppm), and low Y (12–8 ppm). It is inferred that the source materials of the adakitic dacite magma were amphibole eclogite or garnet amphibolite originating from the Neo-Thetys plate subducted beneath the Eurasia plate.
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Acknowledgements
The Department of Environment (environment protection organisation) of the Government of Iran permitted and facilitated this study. We would like to express our gratitude to the former and present heads of the “Natural Environment Division” of this organisation as well as those of the “Office of Natural History Museum, Biodiversity and Genetic Resources” for their support. We also appreciate assistance from the Maragheh governor, mayor, city council, DOE office and participants of the field workshops held in Maragheh during 2007–2009. MMA, MF and field work in Maragheh were partially supported by the Academy of Finland, RHOI project and the Sasakawa Foundation. We thank Dr. B. Roser for discussion and critical reading of the manuscript, Dr. A. Kamei of Shimane University for discussion about adakites, and Ms. Y. Oshima for her preparation of polished thin sections. We wish to thank the reviewers Dr. Masafumi Sudo (Universität Potsdam, Germany) and Dr. Maryam Honarmand (Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Iran) for their critical reading of the manuscript and very helpful comments.
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This article is a contribution to the special issue "The late Miocene Maragheh mammal fauna; results of recent multidisciplinary research"
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Sawada, Y., Zaree, G.R., Sakai, T. et al. K–Ar ages and petrology of the late Miocene pumices from the Maragheh Formation, northwest Iran. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 96, 399–431 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-016-0232-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-016-0232-5