Detrital zircon ages, Lu-Hf isotopes of zircon grains, Sr-Nd isotopes on whole rock and geochemistry of Campanian turbidites in the Eastern Pontides (NE Türkiye): A provenance assessment and Gondwana records

Detrital zircons are crucial stand-ins for the history of continental crust growth and disintegration, as well as the dispersal and assembly of supercontinents. Detrital zircons are effectively used to assess crustal history because sediments transport zircons from source rocks that are no longer at the surface. This study presents detailed Lu-Hf isotopic, U-Pb geochronological analyses of zircon, Sr-Nd isotopic analyses and whole-rock geochemical results from sandstone, volcanically derived sandstone and tuff samples of the Campanian-aged Bozbent Member in the Eastern Pontide Orogen belt of the Sakarya Zone. Sedimentological analyses show that the Bozbent Member was transported and deposited by turbidite currents, while petrographic and geochemical analyses show that the sandstones range from greywacke to litharenite. In this study, U-Pb ages of detrital zircon obtained from Campanian sandstones are presented, along with in situ εHf data. A magmatic origin is indicated by the majority of zircons' oscillatory zoning and by Th/U ratios ranging from 0.2 to 1.5. The ages of detrital zircons range from 2819 to 78 Ma, with most of these zircons being Proterozoic (552–994 Ma). Proterozoic zircons are detrital zircons associated with the Gondwana and the African Craton. The whole-rock geochemical data and Sr-Nd isotope compositions of the sandstones are consistent with local Carboniferous felsic plutons, Jurassic mafic and felsic plutons, Jurassic volcanic rocks, Jurassic clastic rocks and clastic material from Precambrian recycled sediments. It was calculated that more than 90% of the detrital zircons had crystallisation ages older than their depositional ages (CA-DA > 150 Ma, indicative of an extensional basin model). These findings indicate that the Campanian-aged Bozbent Member turbiditic sequence in the Eastern Pontides was deposited in an extensional fore-arc basin and therefore exhibits the petrographic and geochemical characteristics of passive margin sandstones.