Late Cretaceous subduction initiation and Palaeocene-Eocene slab breakoff magmatism in South-Central Anatolia, Turkey

The Late Cretaceous Alihoca ophiolite in the Inner Tauride suture zone (ITSZ) of South-Central Turkey represents part of a single ophiolitic thrust sheet that originated from the Inner Tauride ocean. The ophiolite contains upper mantle peridotites, cumulate wehrlites, layered-to-isotropic gabbros, and microgabbroic-to-doleritic dikes. An ophiolitic melange beneath the Alihoca ophiolite includes blocks of limestone, peridotite, dolerite, basalt, and deep-sea sedimentary rocks (radiolarite, chert) in a matrix comprising sheared serpentinite and mudstone. Isotropic gabbro and dolerite dike rocks show enrichment in Sr, K, Rb, Ba, and Th (LILE) and depletion of Ta, Nb, Zr, Ti, and Y (HFSE), indicating an island arc tholeiite (IAT) affinity. Relatively younger dolerite rocks display low TiO2 (<0.5 wt.%) contents, concave REE profiles with low HREE concentrations, and high LREE values, typical of boninitic affinities. The Alihoca ophiolite, hence, displays an IAT to boninitic geochemical progression in its magmatic evolution, reminiscent of many other Tethyan ophiolites in the region. It represents the remnant of a forearc oceanic crust, which developed during the early stages of subduction within the Inner Tauride ocean. Volcanic, volcano-sedimentary, and sedimentary rocks of the Ulukisla-Camardi basin north of the ITSZ disconformably overlie the mafic-ultramafic rocks of the Alihoca ophiolite. Pillowed and massive lavas of the latest Cretaceous-Palaeocene Ulukisla Formation have alkaline basalt-to-basaltic andesite compositions, displaying relatively enriched LILE and LREE patterns with negative Nb and Ta anomalies. These geochemical features suggest that magmas of the Ulukisla-Camardi volcanic rocks formed from partial melting of a metasomatized lithospheric mantle. This melting event was triggered by the influx of asthenospheric heat through a slab breakoff-induced window in the downgoing Tethyan oceanic lithosphere.