Evidence from detrital chrome spinel chemistry for a Paleo-Tethyan intra-oceanic island-arc provenance recorded in Triassic sandstones of the Nakhlak Group, Central Iran

Detrital chrome spinel (Cr-spinel) is for the first time described from the Nakhlak Group, which is a distinctive Triassic (Late Olenekian-?Early Carnian) sedimentary succession in Central Iran. Previously published data from the Nakhlak Group suggest deposition along an active margin during the Triassic and Eurasian affinity. Presently, the Nakhlak Group is located in the northwestern region of the Central East Iranian Microcontinent, a major segment of the Cimmerian block. The Nakhlak region is believed to have been dislocated from its prior position at the Turan Plate from the southern Eurasian active margin after deposition in Triassic time. Almost all of the analyzed detrital Cr-spinels have high Cr-numbers (0.6-0.85), variable Mg-numbers (0.33-0.78), and low Fe3+ (<0.25), Al2O3 (<20 wt%) and TiO2 (<0.4 wt%) contents, suggesting a magmatic source for the Cr-spinels formed both within oceanic (mainly harzburgitic) mantle and in a supra-subduction zone (SSZ) tectonic setting. The data suggest that mafic ultramafic rock assemblages with SSZ signatures were generated in the Paleo-Tethyan realm before their obduction as an ophiolite. By comparing data from the present study with results from previous work on the Triassic in Central Iran it is evident that Paleo-Tethyan ophiolites of intra-oceanic island-arc (IOIA) origin supplied detrital material to the Nakhlak Group at the southern margin of Eurasia during pre-to syn-Eocimmerian tectonics in the Triassic. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.