Abstract:

We report the results of a study on Quaternary volcanic rocks cropping out in the Elazığ region. Here the sinistral transform East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) is one of the important strike-slip faults of Turkey. The Harput mafic alkaline lavas erupted along with strike-slip fault systems in the Elazığ region in southern Turkey. The Quaternary alkali basalts have higher LILE and HFSE contents and lower LILE/HFSE ratios (Ba/Nb = 2.28-10.7), low 87Sr/86Sr (0.703149-0.703915) and high 143Nd/144Nd (0.512751-0.512895), with compositions similar to those of intraplate magmas. They have high Nb contents (34-76.6 ppm), and Nb/La ratios (>1.0). The Nb/La ratios indicate that the lavas are uncontaminated. The positive Sr anomalies and the lack of Eu anomalies imply that plagioclase was not a major fractionating mineral phase. The different data of the Harput volcanics indicate that the volcanism formed at the intersections of the fault systems that belong to the EAFZ and were produced by the lower degree of partial melting (~0.4-4%) of spinel lherzolite.

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