Tectonomagmatic setting of the Eocene volcanic rocks in Ahovan area (Semnan)

Petrology and tectonomagmatic setting of the Eocene volcanic rocks exposed in the Ahovan area, east of Semnan are presented and discussed. The studied rocks include basic-intermediate and acidic volcanic lavas and dikes, accompanied by intercalations of nummulite-bearing limestone, shallow water deposits, hyaloclastite and hyaloclastic breccia. The basic-intermediate lavas are exposed at the base and the rhyolitic and andesitic lavas are exposed at the top of the volcanic series, all of which may be attributed to a bimodal volcanism. It seems that Eocene volcanic activity occurred in shallow water to subaerial environments. Based on petrographical investigations, the volcanic lavas show basaltic, basaltic andesitic, andesitic, dacitic, rhyolitic and acidic tuffs compositions. The lavas have phyric to aphyric textures. The phyric lavas include plagioclase, augite and hornblend phenocrysts. They show microlitic, microcrystalline and intergranular groundmass in dikes. Disrupted zoning and sieve texture in plagioclase phenocrysts and heterogeneous groundmass might be interpreted by magma mixing. Study of the geochemical analyses, indicates high-k calc-alkaline to shoshonitic magmatic trends in the Ahovan area. Trace and REE spider diagrams, normalized with standard values, display enrichment of LILE and clear depletion of Nb and Ti.  In tectonomagmatic diagrams, these samples plot in the arc field which tends toward an initial extensional back arc envirenment.  It appears that partial melting of adjusted mantle wedge above a subducted slab provided the parental magma which was enriched by fluids-melt released from partial melting of the subducted slab.