Late Cretaceous alkali basalts of Talesh area: Implication for tectonic evolution of continental margin in the southern Eurasia (western Alborz)

Talesh alkali basalts (TAB), accompanied by Upper Cretaceous sedimentary units, are exposed in the western Alborz (North of Iran). Clinopyroxene, plagioclase, ± alkali feldspar are the main minerals in these rocks. The geochemical characters such as high contents of TiO2 (1.68-2.96 wt.%), K2O+Na2O (3.09-9.06 wt.%), and high ratios of (La/Yb)N (9.3-23.4), and Nb/Y>1(1.51-3.9), are consistent with their alkaline composition. In the primitive mantle-normalized multi-elements diagram, these rocks show enrichment of all incompatible elements that are similar to intraplate basalts or oceanic island basalts (OIB). The trace element ratios such as Zr/Y (5.52-10.80), Ta/Yb (1.12-2.65), Th/Yb (1.80-5.81), and Ti/Y (418-753) plot within the range of the alkali within plate basalt. Therefore, the Talesh area in the western Alborz recorded an intra-continental volcanic activity during the Late Cretaceous. This magmatism was generated by lower partial melting (3-7%) of an EMII-enriched asthenospheric mantle source of garnet lherzolite facies. The presence of the high-Ti alkali basalts in Talesh and other parts of western and central Alborz (such as southern Lahijan and Marzanabad basalts) to Georgia could be interpreted by forming a rift system on the southern margin of Eurasia from the Lesser Caucasus to the central Alborz during the Late Cretaceous.