TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mesbahi, Fatemeh
A1  - Mohajjel, Mohammad
A1  - Oberhänsli, Roland
A1  - Moazzen, Mohsen
T1  - The mafic rocks along the North Tabriz Fault, possible remnants of Neo-Tethys oceanic crust in NW Iran
JF  - Geopersia
N2  - The North Tabriz Fault is seismologically an active fault with current right lateral strike-slip movements. Restricted mafic to intermediate Fate Cretaceous igneous rocks are exposed along the North Tabriz Fault. Whole rock and clinopyroxene phenocrysts geochemistry were studied in order to characterize the petrogenesis of these mafic rocks and their possible relation to an oceanic crust. The results indicate a tholeiitic parental magma that formed in an evolved mid-ocean ridge tectonic setting similar to the Iceland mid-Atlantic ridge basalts. The ocean floor basalt characteristics give evidence of an oceanic crust along the North Tabriz Fault. Therefore, the trend of the North Tabriz Fault more likely marks a suture zone related to the closure of a branch of the Neo-Tethys Ocean in the NW Iran. This fault, in addition to the Caucasus and Zagros suture zones, compensates an important part of the convergence between the Arabian and Eurasian plates resulting from the Red Sea divergence. It is concluded that the North Tabriz Fault appears to be possible southeastern continuation of the North Anatolian suture zone.
KW  - North Tabriz Fault
KW  - Mafic Rocks
KW  - Tholeiite
KW  - Late Cretaceous
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.22059/geope.2017.232747.648323
SN  - 2228-7817
VL  - 7
SP  - 301
EP  - 311
PB  - Graduate Faculty of Environment, University of Theran
CY  - Tehran
ER  -