Investigation of mineral chemistry, thermobarometry and fuzzy equilibrium of the basic Plio-Quaternary volcanic rocks in NE Varzeghan

The studied area is situated in northeast Varzeghan in East Azerbaijan Province. In the classification of the structural unites of Iran, this area is a part of Ahar-Arasbaran magmatic arc. The Cenozoic magmatism in the Ahar-Arasbaran region started in the Eocene with an intensive volcanic activity that produced widespread basic to felsic rocks and continued in the Oligo-Miocene with the emplacement of large granitoid plutons. The Plio-Quaternary basaltic and trachyandesitic rocks cover the older magmatic units, particularly in the Varzaghan area. This Quaternary alkaline volcanism in northwest Iran occurred after late Miocene calc-alkaline magmatism.

Minerals from representative samples were analyzed at University of Tasmania (UTAS), Australia with a Cameca Sx-100 electron microprobe with combined WDS and EDS systems. A range of natural minerals were used as standards. The microprobe operated with a 5μm beam diameter, an accelerating voltage of 20 kV and a beam current of 15 nA. Precision, as indicated by replicate determinations on an in-house standard, was better than 2% for the major elements.

Volcanic rocks consist of alkali basalts, trachybasalts , basaltic tracyandesite, tracyandesite, andesite, dacite and rhyodacite. Alkali basalts and trachybasalts display microlithic porphyritic texture with phenocrysts of Chrysolite (XFo: 0.74-0.8), Diopside and Augite (Wo42-48، En37-45، Fs10-16), and plagioclase (XAn: 31-93) in microlithic groundmass. The Olivine composition shows that these minerals are not in equilibrium with liquids similar to the whole-rock composition.  According to melt and clinopyroxene compositions and olivine and clinopyroxene -melt equilibrium, estimated crystallization temperature varies between 1170 C to ~1270 C. The equilibrium pressure calculated using clinopyroxene compositions is close to 8kbar which corresponds to an approximate depth of ~25 km.

The clinopyroxene compositions of the basic rocks display an alkaline nature which indicates an extensional setting. Also, clinopyroxene compositions indicate that parental magma this rocks origin from enriched and primitive source. The petrographic and mineral chemistry evidences reveal that magma evolution processes have been occurred in open-system thermodynamics and fractional crystallization has played the most vital role in the evolution of basaltic magma.