Geologica Acta

Mineral chemistry and P-T conditions of the Karakaya volcanites at Kırka-Afyon-Isparta volcanic province, Afyon, Turkey

2023-05-20T21:13:18+00:00

The Kırka-Afyon-Isparta Volcanic Province (KAIVP) is one of the best known regions in Turkey for the origin and petrological evolution of the high potassium volcanic activity. The temporal and spatial variability of volcanic rocks in the region exerts significant control over their geochemical diversity. Alkaline and ultrapotassic volcanic rocks of the Afyon volcanism are the first products of asthenospheric origin after the orogenesis in western Anatolia. We have determined the mineralogical and petrographic properties of the Karakaya volcanites surrounding Afyon with the help of microprobe analyses. Estimated thermobarometers are calculated. The Karakaya volcanites have been grouped into four different units according to their their mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical characteristics: Seydiler ignimbirite, basaltic trachyandesite, trachyandesite, trachyte and lamproite. Most samples display hypocrystalline porphyritic texture, whereas samples of lamproite unit have a holocrystalline texture. Generally, volcanic units also exhibit some textural evidence of disequilibrium crystallisation, such as sieve texture and corrosion in plagioclase phenocrysts, zoning and inclusions in clinopyroxene phenocrysts. Mineral thermobarometric estimations in all suites were tested on clinopyroxene and feldspar compositions, considering different authors’ approaches. Values of temperatures and pressure range from 1105 to 1273ºC and 5.6 to 12.2kbar, respectively. The temperature and pressure values calculated from the mineral-melt associations in the volcanics suggest that the Afyon Volcanites were affected by magma mixing processes and crystallised at different depths during the transport of magma.

Petrogenesis of the late Miocene Chenar volcanism in the southeast Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic belt, Kerman, Iran: evidence from geochemical, U-Pb geochronologic, and Hf isotopic constraints

2023-06-06T07:31:36+00:00

The Chenar volcanic cone intruded the southeastern part of the Dehaj-Sarduiyeh volcano-sedimentary belt, in the southeast Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc in Iran. The adakitic rocks, with porphyritic texture, mainly consist of rhyodacites and dacites,commonly comprised of phenocrysts of plagioclase, hornblende and biotite, with rare K-feldspar in a groundmass composed of plagioclase, K-feldspar and quartz. They yielded U-Pb zircon ages of 5.52±0.099Ma, 5.46±0.12Ma, and 6.44±0.12Ma, and radiogenic ɛHf(t) values ranging from +3.1 to +12.7. The whole-rock geochemical analysis of these rocks reveals transitional calc-alkaline to shoshonitic characteristics.

The geochemical characteristics of the study rocks, particularly their high Sr/Y (⁓51.6-136.8) at low Y (⁓4.43–16.2ppm) and high La/Yb (⁓28.4–118.4ppm) at low Yb (⁓0.2–1.3ppm), are coherent with a high silica adakitic signature. The whole-rock positive Eu/Eu* anomaly and zircon Ce/Ce* anomaly reflect the effects of an oxidized magmatic signature where the rocks of the study area originated from a mantle source. The high silica adakite geochemical characteristics of the Chenar volcanic cone support formation by partial melting of the modified mantle under the influence of metasomatized subducted oceanic slab in a post-collisional environment.

A MATLAB approach for developing digital rock models of heterogeneous limestones for reactive transport modeling

2024-02-12T07:36:00+00:00

Porosity is a key parameter controlling the physico-chemical behavior of porous rocks. Digital rock physics offers a unique technique for imaging the inherently heterogeneous rock microstructure at fine spatial resolutions and its computational reconstruction, through which a better understanding and prediction of the rock behavior can be achieved. In this study, we propose a simple but accurate method to build a 3D porosity map of centimeter-scale carbonate rock cores from X-ray Micro Computed Tomography (XMCT) imaging data. The method consists of 3 main steps: i) decomposition of 3D volumetric XMCT data into sub-volumes, ii) processing of equidistributed 2D cross-section images in each sub-volume and iii) 2D slice-by-slice calculation of porosity and its assembly to reconstruct a 3D continuum porosity map over the whole core domain using a MATLAB code. The proposed approach significantly conserves the required memory to manipulate large image datasets. The digitized porosity representations are used to build 3D permeability maps of the cores by applying an explicit permeability-porosity relationship. The permeability maps are used as input for numerical simulation of the rock response to the percolation of reactive fluids through which the general validity of the approach is verified. The developed digital rock model paves the way for an improved understanding of reactive transport in carbonate rocks.

Mass occurrence of planktic dendroid graptolite synrhabdosomes (Calyxdendrum) from the Early Ordovician Fezouata biota of Morocco

2024-04-10T07:33:45+00:00

The genus Calyxdendrum is here revised to include planktic dendroid graptolites from the Ordovician (Tremadocian to Sandbian). The mass occurrence of Calyxdendrum amicabilis n. sp. from the Fezouata biota represents one of the few occurrences of synrhabdosomes of dendroid morphology that have ever been discovered. Composite structures, formed from about four to six slender, conical tubaria of the species appear as umbrella-shaped synrhabdosomes. In these, the individual tubaria are connected by their short nemata forming an irregularly shaped proximal membrane. The species is found in the late Tremadocian Sagenograptus murrayi Biozone of the Bou Izargane section in the Ternata plain north of Zagora, Morocco. The mass occurrence is interpreted to represent planktic dendroid colonies transported by low velocity currents or moving actively into different water regions on a wide shallow shelf region. They settled in the “soupy” soft sediment, where they were subsequently compacted in the now lithified mudstone. Planktic dendroids of the genus Calyxdendrum are so far known exclusively from the peri-Gondwana region, but may prove to show a wider biogeographical distribution when better known.