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Age and significance of radiolarian sediments within basic extrusives of the marginal basin Guevgueli Ophiolite (northern Greece)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Taniel Danelian ,
Alastair H. F. Robertson  and
Sarantis Dimitriadis
Taniel Danelian
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK
Alastair H. F. Robertson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK
Sarantis Dimitriadis
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Economic Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki, Greece
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Abstract

Well-preserved Radiolaria have been discovered in calcareous silt turbidites and mudstones intercalated with basic extrusives of the Guevgueli Ophiolite, northern Greece. The mudstones contain terrigenous silt, probably derived from adjacent continental basement of the Serbo-Macedonian and/or Paikon units. Volcanic quartz and rare volcanic glass were probably derived from an active continental margin arc (Paikon volcanic arc) to the west. The radiolarian sediments were deposited within fault-controlled hollows in the ophiolitic extrusives, and then covered by massive and pillowed extrusives. The radiolarian assemblage is indicative of an early Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) age, which therefore dates the genesis of the Guevgueli Ophiolite. Our data are consistent with the age of the intrusive Late Jurassic Fanos Granite, believed to be contemporaneous with the Guevgueli Ophiolite. In general, the Guevgueli and related ophiolites of northern Greece are thought to have formed within a transtensional intra-continental marginal basin, generated in response to oblique eastward subduction of older Tethyan oceanic crust (Almopias ocean).

Type
Research Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 133 , Issue 2 , March 1996 , pp. 127 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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