“Geochemistry and petrogenesis of Paleocene - Eocene shoshonitic lavas in Lahrud region, NW of Iran

The Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic assemblage (UDMA) is a 50-80 km wide Andean-type magmatic belt of intrusive and extrusive rocks formed by northeastward subduction of Neo-Tethyan ocean floor beneath Iran (Berberian and King, 1981). This magmatic assemblage includes a thick (~4 km) pile of early calc-alkaline and latest shoshonitic as well as alkaline rocks. In northwestern part of Iran, the Urumieh-Doktar arc shows interference with western Alborz Tertiary to Quaternary volcanic zone. Particularly the Alborz Mountains as a sinuous belt has been elongated from northwest to northeast of Iran and influenced by Alpine and Cimmerian orogenic events. This belt joins to Lesser Caucasus magmatic belt from northwest and to Parapamisus Mountains of Afghanistan from northeast. On the other hand, there is a young magmatic province between Caspian and Black seas, continued into Anatolia and known as Azerbaijan magmatic province (Alberti et al., 1980). Like as Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic belt, the magmatism activities in Azerbaijan province have increased toward Eocene and Oligo-Miocene and includes a thick pile of early calc-alkaline and latest shoshonitic as well as alkaline rocks. In this paper we try to study the geochemistry and petrogenesis of Lahrud Paleocene-Eocene (North and NE of Ardabil) volcanic rocks.

Basaltic rocks, Lithic artifacts, Building stones, Safavid period, Ardebil, Iran.