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Monazite ages and the evolution of the Menderes Massif, western Turkey

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Abstract

The Menderes Massif experienced polyphase deformation, but distinguishing Pan-African events from Alpine tectono-metamorphic evolution, and discriminating Eocene–Oligocene shortening from recent extension remain controversial. To address this, monazite in garnet-bearing rocks from the massif’s Gordes, Central, and Cine sections were dated in thin section (in situ) using the Th–Pb ion microprobe method. Cambro–Ordovician monazite inclusions in Cine and Central Menderes Massif garnets are ~450 m.y. older than matrix grains. Monazites in reaction with allanite from the Kuzey Detachment, which bounds the northern edge of the Central Menderes Massif, are 17±5 Ma and 4.5±1.0 Ma. The Pliocene result shows that dating of monazite can record the time of extension. The Kuzey Detachment might have exhumed rocks a lateral distance of ~53 km at a rapid rate of ~12 mm/year assuming the present ~20° ramp dip, Pliocene monazite crystallization at ~450°C, and a geothermal gradient of ~25°C/km. Assuming an angle of 60°, the rate decreases to ~5 mm/year, with the detachment surface at ~21 km depth in the Pliocene. Two Gordes Massif monazites show a similar allanite–monazite reaction relationship and are 29.6±1.1 Ma and 27.9±1.0 Ma, suggesting that the Cenozoic extension in the Gordes Massif, and possibly the entire Menderes Massif, might have begun in the Late Oligocene.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to Prof. Okan Tekeli who died in August 2001. The National Science Foundation (EAR-9810811 to I. Çemen) supported the project. Samples were collected by I. Çemen, O. Tekeli, and G. Seyitoglu during the summers of 1999 and 2000. The ion microprobe facility at UCLA is partly supported by a grant from the Instrumentation and Facilities Program, Division of Earth Sciences, National Science Foundation. Discussions with Y. Yilmaz, K. Gessner, M. Yazman, and M. Kohn were very helpful. We thank C. Burchfiel and J. Bartley for detailed reviews that improved the manuscript.

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Catlos, E.J., Çemen, I. Monazite ages and the evolution of the Menderes Massif, western Turkey. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 94, 204–217 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-005-0470-7

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