Back-arc extensional magmatism in the Oligo-Miocene basin of the Northern edge of Central Iran

Subduction of the Neo–Tethyan oceanic lithosphere beneath the southern edge of the Central Iran caused development of extensional back-arc basins behind the Urumieh–Dokhtar magmatic belt during Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Some researchers have noted formation of the oceanic back-arc basins in Nain, Sabzevar and Sistan in Central Iran during Mesozoic, but little is known about generation of such basins in Cenozoic. The depressed extensional back-arc basin of Central Iran contains sedimentary successions of intracontinental extensional environments associated with alkaline basic magmatic rocks. These magmatic rocks are outcropped in the Oligo-Miocene gypsiferous red marls (red formations), as both intrusive (gabbro) and extrusive (basalt) forms. The present study has focused on the basaltic lava flows in the Oligo-Miocene siliciclastic-evaporitic sedimentary succession extending for about 300 kilometers Sabzevar to Shahroud along the northern edge of Central Iran. These lava flows are observed as interbedded with the Oligo-Miocene sedimentary units. In the Kalate-Sadat area, located SW of Sabzevar, there are at least five intermittent basaltic lava flows in the red marls. These basaltic rocks (with a composition of olivine-basalt to basalt) show porphyritic, glomeroporphyritic and trachytic textures and are composed of olivine, clinopyroxene and plagioclase phenocrysts in a glassy to microlitic ground mass. On the basis of geochemical data, the parent magma of these rocks had a sodic-alkaline affinity, enriched in LILEs and LREEs and depleted in HREEs, without negative anomalies in HFSEs. The basalts show the geochemical characteristics of the basaltic magmas originated partial melting of adjusted enriched garnet lherzolite mantle source beneath the continental areas of extensional back-arc basins.