Ordovician arc and syncollisional magmatism in the İstanbul-Zonguldak Tectonic Unit (NW Turkey): Implications for the consumption of the Teisseyre-Tornquist Ocean in Far East Avalonia

The İstanbul-Zonguldak Tectonic Unit is an Amazonia-derived continental fragment added to Baltica during the middle Paleozoic, and represents Far East Avalonia. The soft-docking time of two continental blocks, thus the consumption of the Teisseyre-Tornquist Ocean, is poorly known. This paper reports biotite-bearing dacite and pyroxene-bearing basaltic andesite and dacite dykes of Ordovician igneous crystallization ages in the İstanbul-Zonguldak Tectonic Unit (NW Turkey). They have porphyritic to spherulitic textures. U–Pb dating on igneous zircons from arc- and syncollisional-related dykes yielded Ordovician ages of ca. 484.1 ± 2.5 Ma (2σ) and 444.4 ± 3.7 to 443.0 ± 2.1 Ma (2σ). They display calc-alkaline signatures and are noteworthy with subduction components, as deduced by the presence of marked negative Nb anomalies. Biotite-bearing dykes intruded to it in an arc setting whereas pyroxene-bearing dykes emplaced into it in a syncollisional setting. Besides, Middle-Late Ordovician granites (c. 464–446 Ma) intruding the high-grade metamorphic rocks, known as rift-related intrusions in previous studies, show calc-alkaline affinities and contain subduction components, and they formed in a volcanic arc. I suggest that Early-Late Ordovician magmatism is related to the Teisseyre-Tornquist Ocean subducting under Far East Avalonia, and Late Ordovician magmatism is associated with soft-docking between two continental blocks, thus the destruction of the Teisseyre-Tornquist Ocean. Overall, its suture in Far East Avalonia overlaps with the Vardar suture in Balkans, and it can be traced from İzmir to Söğüt in Anatolia and represents the missing part in Far East Avalonia.