Geochemistry, provenance and tectonic setting of the Late Cambrian-Early Ordovician Seydişehir Formation in the Çaltepe and Fele areas, SE Turkey

The major, trace and rare earth element (REE) contents of metapelite (MPL), metapsammite (MPS) and metamarl (MM) samples from the Cambro-Ordovician Seydişehir Formation were analyzed to investigate their provenance and tectonic setting. The MPS, MPL, and MM samples have variable SiO2 concentrations, with average values of 72.36, 55.54, and 20.95 wt%, moderate SiO2/Al2O3 ratios (means of 6.88, 3.23, and 3.80), moderate to high Fe2O3 + MgO contents (means of 5.14, 9.55, 3.56 wt%), and high K2O/Na2O ratios (means of 3.26, 3.64, 2.90), respectively. On average, the chemical index of alteration (CIA) values of the MPS and the MPL are 65.87 and 71.96, respectively, while the chemical index of weathering (CIW) values are 74.54 and 85.09, respectively. These data record an intermediate to high degree of alteration (weathering) of plagioclase to illite/kaolinite in the samples' provenance. The chondrite-normalized REE patterns of all the sample groups are similar and are characterized by subparallel light rare earth elements (LREE)-enriched, relatively flat heavy rare earth elements (HREE) patterns with pronounced Eu anomalies (mean of 0.69) and moderate fractionation [average (La/Yb)N = 8.7]. Plots of sediments in ternary diagrams of La, Th, Sc and elemental ratios (La/Sc, Th/Sc, Cr/Th, Eu/Eu*, La/Lu, Co/Th, La/Sc and Sc/Th), which are critical for determining provenance, and REE patterns indicate that the metaclastic units of the Seydişehir Formation were derived dominantly from felsic to intermediate magmatic rocks and not from a mafic source. The La-Sc-Th and Th-Sc-Zr/10 ternary diagrams of the Seydişehir Formation are typical of continental island arc/active continental margin tectonic settings. The geologic location and geochemistry of the Seydişehir Formation suggest that it was deposited in an Andean-type retroarc foreland basin during the Late Cambrian-Early Ordovician period. The Neoproterozoic intermediate to felsic magmatic rocks and metaclastic sediments with felsic origins of the Sandıklı-Afyon Basement Complex (SBC) and their equivalent units, which are thought to be overlain by the younger units in the study area, may be the dominant source rocks for the Seydişehir Formation.