Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Petrography and geochemistry (major, trace and rare earth elements) of clastic rocks from the Early Paleozoic age in the Southeast Anatolian Autochthon (SEAA) units of the Arabian Plate in southeastern Turkey have been investigated to understand their provenance. The Precambrian-Early Paleozoic units in the Mardin-Derik-Kızıltepe region consist of sandstone (red and cross-bedded siliceous sandstone, green sandstone), shale, siltstone, and sandstones intercalated with limestone with red Fe-nodule and dolomite. The sedimentary units contain mainly in order of abundance as siliceous (quartz, moganite), feldspar (plagioclase, microcline), phyllosilicate (illite, chlorite, kaolinite, I-S, C-V, smectite), carbonate (calcite, dolomite) and associating with rarely goethite minerals. According to chemical compositions, siliceous amount decrease from older to younger units in the siliciclastics rocks called as litharenite, wacke and arkose. In addition, CIA, CIW, PIA and ICV index values, element contents and their ratios (Th, U, Sc Z, La, Yb, Eu, Gd and Yb) indicate that weathering and/or alteration degrees of silicates increase and sedimentary sorting developed well. On the other hand, chondrite-normalized trace (+REE) element pattern, element contents and ratios of sandstones suggest that they transported from magmatic and partly a silicic/felsic source and also deposited in mostly passive and active continental margins.