New data on the Late Cenozoic basaltic volcanism in Syria, applied to its origin

New data on geology and 21 K–Ar dates of the Late Oligocene–Quaternary basalts in Syria, combined with analysis of the new and previous data are used to reconstruct the volcanic history and relations between it and tectonic events. Volcanism began at the end of Oligocene (26–24 Ma) and was concentrated in the Late Oligocene–Early Miocene along a N-trending band, which stretches from the Jebel Arab (Harrat Ash Shaam) up to Kurd Dagh and southern Turkey. Activity waned in the Middle Miocene (17–12 Ma), but was resumed in the same band in the Tortonian and increased in the Messinian and Early Pliocene (6.3–4 Ma), when volcanism spread to the Shin Plateau and its coastal extension. After a brief hiatus ∼ 4–3.5 Ma, volcanism became still more intensive and spread from the N-trending band to the east into the northern margin of the Mesopotamian Foredeep and to the west into the Dead Sea Transform zone. Additional eruptions continued into the Holocene.Volcanism lasted > 25 million years in the Jebel Arab Highland and > 15 million years in the Aleppo Plateau. The long duration of volcanism in the same parts of the moving Arabian plate and absence of records of one-way migration of the activity mean that the magmatic sources moved together with the plate, i.e., they were situated within the lithosphere mantle. Coincidence of the tectonic and volcanic stages of the Arabian plate development proves that volcanic activity depended on the geodynamic situation, caused by the plate motion. Situated within the lithosphere, magmatic sources within this transverse band were possibly caused by thermal and deforming influences of the asthenospheric lateral flow, moved laterally from the Ethiopia–Afar deep superplume.