whole rock and study of formation of eastern gneisses of Salmas (west of Urumia Lake), NW Iran

East Salmas gneisses are located in the northernmost parts of the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone and are seen in banded and deformed with the 6 different groups of lithological diversity. Their protolith is of paragneiss type with arkosic sedimentary rock type.Texturally, they are immature. Based on this study, chemical maturation trend of protolith of the present investigated gneisses are in the arid to semi-arid boundary climatic conditions with average granite composition and chemical alteration index of about 55%. The linear trend in the diagrams of major oxides variations of the parent gneisses in the region confirms the partial melting and granitization of the genesis in these rocks. According to the pattern of normalized diagrams, these rocks show good agreement with typical paragneiss diagrams of the world. Investigating the various diagrams reveals that the tectonic setting of the gneisses is mainly of continental margin type with passive sedimentary trend.