Petrography, geochemistry, and provenance of Jurassic sandstones from the Sakarya Zone, NW Turkey

Abstract

The Jurassic sandstones exposed in the western part of the Sakarya Zone are yellowish to brown, moderate to well sorted, medium to coarse-grained, grain-supported, and cemented by calcareous and minor silica. Sandstones are mainly classified as litharenite, subarkose, and arkose according to the relative proportions of quartz, feldspar and rock fragments, and major element ratios. On the SiO2 variation diagram, Na2O and K2O show slight positive correlations, which could reflect abundance of sodic plagioclase and K-feldspar with quartz within high Si-content sandstones. Sandstones generally exhibit slight LREE enrichment with respect to HREEs. The REE plots are characteristic for sedimentary rocks derived from the upper continental crust. Combining the results of several provenance discrimination diagrams, elemental ratios (Th/Sc, Zr/Sc, La/Th), and REE contents in sandstones, they reveal that the sandstones originated from intermediate to felsic source rocks. Accordingly, the probable source of the Jurassic sandstones is the crystalline basement of the Sakarya Zone consisting of Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian granitoids, and high-grade metamorphic basement rocks. The Jurassic sandstones mostly have characteristic features of passive continental margin basins. It can be noted that the sandstones may have been deposited in a marginal basin that began to open in Early Jurassic time. CIA and CIW values for the Jurassic sandstones suggest that the source area was subject to low to moderate chemical weathering under semihumid to semiarid climatic conditions.