Devonian alkaline basic magmatism in Eastern Alborz, North of Shahrood: evidence for Paleotethys rifting

Basic igneous rocks as microgabbroic dykes and sills, and basaltic lava flows frequently have been outcropped in the Padha and Khoshyelagh formations in Devonian successions in eastern Alborz, north of Shahrood. The existence of these magmatic rocks as interbeded in silici-clastics, limestones and dolomites of the Padha and Khoshyelagh formations indicates their relations with an extensional tectonic regime of an intracontinental rift system governed on eastern Alborz in this time. Occurrence a rift-type sedimentary succession, Enrichment of igneous rocks in LREEs, relative depletion of them in HREEs, absence of negative anomaly in HFSEs, high amounts of P and Ti in these rocks and their plots in the discrimination tectonic diagrams indicate alkaline nature of parental magma which have been generated from 14-16% partial melting of an enriched sub-lithospheic garnet lherzolitic mantle source in 100-110 km depths. This scenario indicates the continuation of paleotethys opening extentional movements in eastern Alborz during Lower-Middle Paleozoic (Ordovician-Devonian).