K–Ar ages of granitoids unravel the stages of Neo-Tethyan convergence in the eastern Pontides and central Anatolia, Turkey
K–Ar dating of mineral separates extracted from various granitoid rock units of the eastern Pontides and central Anatolia, Turkey, has provided some new insights unravelling various stages of the Neo-Tethyan convergence system, which evolved with northward subduction between the Eurasian plate (EP) to the north and the Tauride-Anatolide platform (TAP) to the south along the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture (IAES) zone. Arc-related granitoid rocks are only encountered in the eastern Pontides and yield K–Ar cooling ages of both Early Cretaceous (138.5 ± 2.2 Ma) (early arc), and Late Cretaceous, ranging from 75.7 ± 0.0 to 66.5 ± 1.5 Ma (mature arc), respectively. The multi-sourced granitoids of the eastern Pontides, with a predominant mantle component and K–Ar ages between 40 and 50 Ma, are considered to be a part of post-collisional slab break-off magmatism accompanied by tectonic denudation of pre-Late Cretaceous granitoid rocks following juxtaposition of the EP and the TAP around 55–50 Ma in the eastern Pontides. The K–Ar cooling ages of collision-related S-, I- and A-type granitoids in central Anatolia reflect good synchronism between 80 and 65 Ma, suggesting a coeval genesis in a unique geodynamic setting but with derivation from various sources—namely, purely crustal, purely mantle and/or of mixed origin. This sort of simultaneous generation model for these S-I-A-type intrusives seems to be consistent with a post-collisional lithospheric detachment related geodynamic setting. I-type granodioritic to tonalitic intrusives with K–Ar cooling ages ranging from 40 to 48 Ma in east-central Anatolia are interpreted to have been derived from a post-collisional, within-plate, extension-related geodynamic setting following the amalgamation of the EP and the TAP in east-central Anatolia.