Petrochemistry of Khunrang intrusive complex, southeast of Kerman, Iran: Implications for magmatic evolution of Sanandaj-Sirjan zone in the Mesozoic time

A noticeable characteristic of the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone (SSZ) of Iran is the presence of extensive mafic to felsic intrusive igneous rocks in the host metamorphic rocks of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras. A similar composition is evident in batholithic size Khunrang Instrusive Complex (KIC) of southern SSZ. The rocks that make the KIC complex are mostly leucocratic microdiorite, quartz diorite, tonalite, granodiorite, granite and subordinate mesocratic to melanocratic pyroxene hornblende-gabbro and microgabbro. Field evidence and geochemical data suggest that the felsic rocks are not the products of fractional crystallization from a mafic phase. Using various discrimination and normalized multi-element diagrams suggest that mafic rocks, of tholeiitic to calc-alkaline affinities, were formed in an island arc or continental arc setting, from a metasomatized lithospheric mantle, above the stability field of garnet in a subduction zone environment. The felsic rocks, calc-alkaline and metaluminous in nature, have I-type granite characteristics. Their relative enrichment in large ion lithophile elements (LILEs) such as Ba, Cs and K and depletion in high field strength elements (HFSEs) such as Nb, Ta and Ti, is a signature of their development in an arc related environment in an active continental margin, similar to KIC mafic rocks. Geochemical characteristics suggest that the KIC felsic rocks were formed by partial melting of metabasic rocks of lower crust in response to underplating of mantle-derived basaltic magmas in an active continental margin as a result of Neo-Tethys oceanic crust subduction beneath the Central Iranian microcontinent in Mesozoic time.