Abstract:
The Bitlis-Pütürge Massifs and Derik volcanics that crop out in the Southeast Anatolian Belt are parts of
the Cadomian domain in Anatolia where relicts of the oldest continental crust of Turkey are exposed. The
Bitlis-Pütürge Massifs contain a Neoproterozoic basement, with overlying Phanerozoic rocks that were
imbricated, metamorphosed and thrust over the edge of Arabia during the Alpine orogeny. The basement
consists mainly of granitic to tonalitic augen gneisses and metagranites, associated with schists, amphibolites
and paragneisses. Based on whole-rock geochemical data, the augen gneisses are interpreted to
have protoliths crystallized from subduction zone magmas. This study conducted the first zircon dating
on two augen gneisses that gave 206Pb/238U dates of 551 ± 6 and 544 ± 4 Ma, interpreted as the formation
ages of the Pütürge Massif, broadly coeval to those of the Bitlis metagranites and the Derik volcanics that
occurred from ca. 581 to 529 Ma (the Ediacaran-early Cambrian). The eHf(t) values (+1.2 to 5.3) of the
dated zircons, with crustal model ages (TDM
C ) from 1.4 to 1.8 Ga, indicate that formation of the Pütürge
Massif involves an older, most likely the Mesoproterozoic, continental crust component. Similar to the
Bitlis-Pütürge gneisses, coeval basement rocks are widespread in the Tauride-Anatolide platform (e.g.,
the Menderes Massif). All these dispersed Cadomian basement rocks are interpreted as fragments of
the Ediacaran-Early Cambrian continental arcs bordering the active margin of northern Gondwana
