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A combined rock magnetic and geochemical investigation of Upper

Cretaceous volcanic rocks in the Pontides, Turkey

Article  in  Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica · October 2009

DOI: 10.1007/s11200-009-0035-5

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A COMBINED ROCK MAGNETIC AND GEOCHEMICAL
INVESTIGATION OF UPPER CRETACEOUS VOLCANIC ROCKS
IN THE PONTIDES, TURKEY

MUALLA CENGIZ CINKU1, DIETER RAMMLMAIR2, MÜMTAZ Z. HISARLI1 AND NACI ORBAY1

1 Istanbul Universitesi, Jeofizik Mühendisliği Bölümü, Avcılar 34320, Istanbul, Turkey

(mualla@istanbul.edu.tr)
2 Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Geozentrum Hannover, Stilleweg 2,
D-30655 Hannover, Germany (dieter.rammlmair@bgr.de)

Received: November 8, 2007; Revised: July 4, 2008; Accepted: June 23, 2009

ABSTRACT

Upper Cretaceous volcanic rocks were collected at 24 sites along the Pontides, N-NE
Turkey, for rock magnetic and geochemical studies. Rock magnetic and petrographic
methods showed that the lavas are characterized predominantly by titanomagnetites with
a mixture of pseudo-single and multi-domain grains, whereas in tephrite single domain
titanohematite was dominant. Measurements of magnetic susceptibility and the
geochemical properties on different volcanic rock types provide important knowledge
about the magnetic stability of the rocks. The magnetic properties are interpreted in terms
of the composition, concentration, magma generation. Tephrite and phonotephrites with
the highest intensities (5200 mA/m) and high magnetic susceptibility values (2585  105),
largest grain sizes and Fe/Ti values, showing minor or no alteration are the most
magnetic stable samples in contrast to dacites with the lowest intensity-magnetic
susceptibility (520 mA/m – 573  105) and high alteration degree. The basanite samples
show very low NRM (48165 mA/m) but very high magnetic susceptibility
(29063100  105) values suggesting the alteration of Fe-Ti minerals. It is shown that
the magnetic properties of the basic to acidic rocks show a systematic variation with
magma differentiation and could be related to fractional crystallization. Major and trace
elements revealed that the lavas are compatible with complex magma evolution, with
mineral phases of olivine+magnetite+clinopyroxene in basic series, amphibole+
+clinopyroxene in intermediate rocks and plagioclase+clinopyroxene+biotite in acidic
series.

K e y w o r d s : natural remanent magnetization, thermal demagnetization, alternating

demagnetization, volcanic rocks

1. INTRODUCTION

Rock magnetic investigations can provide us with useful information about

composition, domain state and alteration processes of magnetic minerals in rocks. In
addition, they are a very common technique to identify the stability and origin of the

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009), 475495 475

© 2009 Inst. Geophys. AS CR, Prague
 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

natural remanence. Morover, if used in a conjunction with other diagnostic methods like
petrographic and geochemical studies, they can offer a better interpretation of the
magnetic properties of the rocks.
There are many publications treating the relationship of magnetic parameters of rocks
to results of microscopical or geochemical studies of individual minerals (Banerjee, 1992;
Takahashi et al., 1980; Tarling and Hrouda, 1993; Horen and Fleutelot, 1998;
Muxworthy and Heider, 2001; Alva-Valdivia et al., 1991, 2000, 2003; Ubangoh et al.,
2005). Most of the studies agree that magnetic parameters are controlled by factors of
maghemitization process and domain state of magnetic carriers (Bleil and Petersen, 1983;
Kent and Gee, 1994; Jackson et al., 1998; Zhou et al., 2001; Wang and Van der Voo,
2004).
This paper presents results of new rock magnetic and geochemical studies on various
types of volcanic rocks along Ereğli and Amasya regions, in the western and central
Pontides (Fig. 1). The volcanic rocks formed in the Upper Cretaceous by the northward
subduction of Neo-Tethyan ocean floor under the Pontides (Dewey et al., 1973; Adamia et
al., 1977; Sengör and Yılmaz, 1981; Bektas, 1986; Robertson et al., 1991). We show how
magnetic properties in various types of volcanic rocks vary with mineralogy, magma
differentiation and grain size. It is pointed out that the petrographical evolution and
crystallization processes of the volcanic rocks could affect the relationships among the
magnetic structures which depend on the origin and stability of the remanence. We also
report new major and trace element data to improve a classification of the volcanic rocks
of Upper Cretaceous arc magmatism situated in the western and central Pontides (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Geological map of the studying area indicating Mesozoic sequences, locations of the
sampling sites are marked by rectangular boxes.

476 Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009)

 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

2. METHODOLOGY

Oriented hand samples were collected from 24 different sites in the western and
central Pontides (Fig. 1). Rock magnetic experiments were carried out in the laboratory of
the Ludwig-Maximillians University of Munich, Istanbul University and in the ETH-
University in Zurich. The natural remanence magnetization (NRM) was measured using
a Molspin spinner magnetometer and the magnetic susceptibility was measured with
a Bartington susceptibility bridge (MS2). Pilot samples were demagnetized either
thermally in 14 steps from 50C to 700C with the Schonstedt MTD-80 demagnetizer or
using the stepwise alternating-field (AF) up to 200 mT with 2G AF demagnetizer.
A variable field translation balance (VFTB) and a Micromag vibrating sample
magnetometer were used for thermomagnetic and hysteresis measurements. Isothermal
remanent magnetization (IRM) measurements were carried out by applying stepwise
increasing magnetic field between 100 and 1500 mT. The anhysteretic remanent
magnetization (ARM) was produced using a 100 mT AF peak field with a 0.05 to 0.01 mT
direct (bias) field.
Geochemical characteristics were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry in the
Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover. Petrographical
investigations were carried out on thin and polished sections by optical microscopy,
EDXRF microscopy and SEM.

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

3.1. Classification of the Volcanic Rocks

The major and trace element contents spanning a wide range of SiO2
(42.7266.60 wt.%), TiO2 (0.361.82 wt.%), Fe2O3 (3.329.84 wt.%) Al2O3
(12.6819.58 wt.%), Na2O (2.436.56 wt.%), K2O (0.906.64 wt.%), P2O5
(0.140.55 wt.%), Ba (3241539 ppm), Rb (6199 ppm), Sr (143901 ppm), Zr
(79207 ppm), Nb (< 227 ppm), Y (< 329 ppm), Mg# = 25.6169.706%. High weight
loss on ignition (LOI) values for basic samples (up to 7.81 wt.%) show the degree of
alteration suffered by these rocks (Table A.1 in the Appendix). In order to classify the
volcanic rocks according to their chemical compositions, we used the alkali silica (TAS)
diagram after Cox et al. (1979). The rocks can be classified according to the percentage of
SiO2 in chemical equivalent by their low and high silica contents as ultrabasic (basanite),
basic (tephrite, phonotephrite, basalt, mugearite, hawaiite) and intermediate to acidic
rocks (benmoreite, trachyandesite, trachyte and dacite) (Fig. 2).
The magmatic evolution of the rocks can be highlighted tectonomagmatically by
means of the Harker diagrams (Fig. 3) to understand the composition of the fractionating
magnetic minerals. The variation of the major and trace elements (e.g., TiO2, Al2O3,
Fe2O3,) with the SiO2 content exhibits different trends suggesting a complex magma
evolution and maybe a different magmatic origin. The major elements, such as TiO2,
Fe2O3, CaO generally show negative correlation with increasing SiO2 whereas Al2O3
shows a positive increasing trend for basic rocks and decreasing trend for acidic rocks.

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 477

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Fig. 2. SiO2 versus Na2O + K2O discrimination plot after Cox et al. (1979).

The decrease of Ca, Fe and Ti basically reflect fractional crystallization of plagioclase,

olivine/pyroxene, Ti-phases such as titano-magnetite/hematite, ilmenite, hornblende and
biotite. MgO shows a decrease with increasing SiO2 that might be explained by fractional
crystallization of augite, biotite or hornblende. K2O and Rb show increasing trends that
are observed in many arcs (Hildreth and Moorbath, 1988) and might be related to sanidine
in at higher SiO2. Ba contents show a steeply decreasing trend with SiO2 concentration in
basic series and a slow increase followed by a steep decrease in acidic rocks, which may
correspond to sanidine crystallization. Sc, Cr contents decrease with increasing SiO2 and
then they show fairly constant trend for felsic rocks. The steep decrease of Cr with
increasing SiO2 in the basanite series indicates the presence of chromite(?), olivine and
clinopyroxene crystallization, whereas the decreasing trend in V could be an evidence of
magnetite or amphibole crystallization. Co concentration of all samples show a decrease
with increasing SiO2 and the steep decrease in basanites is evidence for magnetite and
olivine crystallization. The decreasing trend for Sr more or less follows the Ca trend
related to the plagioclase crystallization. The concentration of Nb are highest in the
basanite at low SiO2. A slight increase with SiO2 is observed for benmorites and trachites,
whilst Nb in the dacite series decreasesintermediate rocks are controlled by the
fractionation of amphibole+clinopyroxene assemblage and the acidic rocks exhibit
plagioclase+biotite+clinopyroxene cyrstallization.

478 Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009)

 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

Fig. 3. Harker-type diagrams showing the differentiation trends in Upper Cretaceous lavas.

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 479

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Fig. 4. MORB-normalized spider diagram of represantative lavas. The normalizing constants are
taken from Pearce (1983) (see Fig. 3 for symbol key).

It is known that, magnesium numbers (Mg#) reflect the mineral fractionation and
therefore it will be used in various diagrams as a main discrimination factor between
magma differentiation system and the magnetic properties. In Fig. 5a, SiO2 contents is
plotted against Mg numbers to classify the lithology of the rocks with respect to their
different magma types. There is a systematic decrase from the basic rocks with high
Mg-numbers up to 70, to intermediate-acidic rocks with Mg numbers ranging from 61 to
25. Most of the basic rocks exhibit high Fe/Ti with increasing Mg (Fig. 5b). However the
Fe/Ti ratio in basanites, hawaiite and basalt samples is low compared to the basic series.
The basanites with high Mg numbers are the ones with the lowest Fe/Ti ratio probably due
to the olivine crystal fractionation.
3.2. Petrography
The basic rocks are fine- to medium-grained rocks with porphyritic texture, and
contain plagioclase (in phenocrysts, 2859%), clinopyroxene (1030%), poikilitic
nepheline (713%), alkali feldspar (130%) and olivine (713%) as major phases.
Secondary minerals such as K-feldspar/albite, epidote, are observed in basanites. The
most abundant Fe-Ti oxide mineral is titanomagnetite (Fe3xTixO4) that occurs in
idiomorphic grains, sometimes associated with epidote or partly altered to hematite
(Fig. 6a). In the tephrite sample, titanohematite, with ilmenite lamellae, indicates high
temperature oxidation. Some patches of magnetite and maghemite are present around the
planes of the grain boundary (Fig. 6b). The magnetite in the basalts is highly altered to
hematite by low-temperature oxidation in basalts manifests through the oxidation of

480 Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009)

 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

Fig. 5. Mg numbers versus (a) SiO2; (b) Fe/Ti, illustrating the correlation between magnetization
and magma types (see Fig. 3 for symbol key).

magnetite to hematite exsolution (Fig. 6c). The magnetic minerals are of cubic and
elongated shapes between 10100 m. The titanomagnetites of basic rocks have Ti values
expressed by the ulvöspinel contents between 1020 wt.% (Bleil and Petersen, 1983)
whereas titanomagnetite found in the basanites have very high Ti (ulvöspinel content
(60 wt.%)) .
The intermediate volcanics have a porphyritic plagioclase texture in a homogeneous
matrix of hornblende with a small amount of alkaline feldspar. Some lavas show
hyaloplitic texture with small plagioclase, porphyritic alkali feldspar (sanidine) crystals,
hornblende and biotite. Other samples have a predominantly amygdaloidal texture;
porphyritic minerals are dominantly plagioclase with some alkaline feldspar and
hornblende. Magnetite is the most abundant opaque mineral. Within some samples
magnetite is the alterated product of porphyritic amphibole whereas hematite and
Fe-oxyhydroxides are the alteration products of magnetite in the rim zones. The dacites
show a porphyritic hypocrystalline texture. Quartz and hornblende are homogeneously
distributed as idiomorphic crystals in the plagioclase matrix. High level of low-
temperature oxidation is observed in most of dacite samples caused by the
maghemitisation of magnetite to titanomagnetite. Fine ilmenite lamellae are observed in
benmoreites and trachyandesites (Fig. 6d). The magnetic minerals are rounded in shapes
showing grain sizes of 1030 m and an intermediate amount of Ti in titanomagnetite
(ulvöspinel content between 2040 wt.%.

3.3. Rock Magnetic Investigations

Tephrite and phonotephrites with a magnetic susceptibility of 2600  105 [SI] and
a NRM of 52002190 mA/m are regarded as the strongest magnetic rocks. Basalts and
hawaiites show very high susceptibility values (2900  105 [SI]) but intermediate NRM
values (23001100 mA/m), and trachytes, dacites, mugearites are defined as weakly
magnetic, whereas the ultrabasic basanites show very high susceptibility of 3000  105
[SI] but the lowest NRM of 48165 mA/m (Table 1).

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 481

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Fig. 6. Representative photomicrographs of the volcanic samples. (a) Titanomagnetite (white)

rimmed by hematite is the main magnetic carrier in AS1 site. (b) Tephrite sample (KS 1 site)
showing a contribution of titanohematite, magnetite and maghemite minerals. (c) Low-temperature
oxidation of basalt sample (DV-3.1a), showing the oxidation of magnetite to hematite.
(d) Photomicrograph of YN-2.1c sample, showing the presence of magnetite. Fine ilmenite lamellae
show high-temperature oxidation.

High-field thermomagnetic curves are used to identify the ferromagnetic minerals in

their different lithologies. The samples show thermomagnetic curves with one or two
magnetic phases indicating low and high temperature oxidation. The different curve types
are shown in Fig. 7aj.
The first group specimens show a single ferromagnetic phase, with Curie temperatures
of 500570C for phonotephrite, benmoreite, basalt and hawaiite samples (Fig. 7a,b,c,d)
and around 600620C for mugearite and tephrite samples (Fig. 7e,f). The
thermomagnetic curves are reasonably reversible or nearly reversible, suggesting that
virtually no alteration occured during the heating process. This suggests that Ti-poor
titanomagnetites with addition of titanohematite are the magnetic carriers. The second
type shows irreversible curves where Curie temperatures and magnetizations are
lowered upon cooling (Fig. 7g). The third type of curves is characterized by Curie
temperature of ~560C in the cooling curve and two different points at 450 and 620C in
the heating curve (Fig. 7h), suggesting an alteration of titanomaghemite to hematite. The

482 Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009)

 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

relatively large difference between heating and cooling curves suggest that low-
temperature oxidized titanomagnetite is the main magnetic carrier. The very weakly
magnetized basanite samples show different pattern with low Curie temperature in the
heating curve (TC = 200C) and higher temperature in the cooling curve which is
characterized as the fourth type (Fig. 7i). The high TC in the cooling curve indicates the
alteration of high-Ti titanomagnetite to low-Ti magnetite.
The IRM acquisition curves for all samples exhibit two different types of behavior
(Fig. 8). The first type is dominated by a low coercivity phase with a saturation field of
0.2 T as observed in trachyte, mueagarite or dacite samples. Phonotephrite, tephrite and
basalt samples are typical for the second type that shows a slow increase in IRM in low
field. They show a combination of both types of IRM acquisitions which suggest that both
titanomagnetite and hematite are present.
The soft and hard magnetic samples are also observed in the hysteresis plots (Day et
al., 1977). The parameters of Hcr/Hc (remanent coercivity/coercivity) and Jrs/Js
(saturation remanence/saturation magnetization) varies between (Jrs/Js = 0.00180.67,
Hcr/Hc = 1.45.2). This indicates that the magnetic grains of the titanomagnetites are

Table 1. Magnetic properties of volcanic rocks.

Magn. Curie
NRM Susc. MDF Hcr/Hc Jrs/Js
Sample Rock Type Temp.
[mA/m] [mT)]
[105 SI] [C]

GS-4.2 Basanite 48 2906 180 10 4.8 0.050

GS-2.2 Basanite 65 3100 200 9 5.2 0.054
KS-1.1 Tephrite 5200 2308 630 200 1.4 0.67
AS-1.1 Phonotephrite 2190 2575 500 140 2.8 0.15
AS-2.1 Phonotephrite 3800 2540 520 135 3.2 0.11
AS-3.1 Phonotephrite 3900 2585 540 140 3.3 0.15
DV-3.1 Basalt 1479 2735 540 50 3.1 0.22
KS-3.1 Basalt 2339 2546 340, 520 58 3.4 0.24
GS-2.4 Hawaitte 1105 2906 515 44 2.5 0.33
GS-2.1 Mugearite 334 2250 560 35 3.8 0.31
ER-1.1 Mugearite 410 2100 620 38 2.4 0.24
IB-1.1 Benmoreite 441 283 540 35 3.14 0.066
IB1.2 Benmoreite 555 250 520 35 3.12 0.071
CI-3.3 Benmoreite 355 302 580 30 3.6 0.070
YN-2.1 Benmoreite 252 658 540 38 3.8 0.06
CI-4.4 Trachyandesite 529 210 570 30 2.3 0.11
CI-4.1 Trachyandesite 309 250 570 34 2.8 0.068
ER-4.1 Trachyandesite 373 1872 550 30 3.4 0.24
ER-3.1 Trachyandesite 180 1200 620 36 3.7 0.25
DV-2.1 Trachyte 145 350 520 35 2.9 0.16
VK-2.1 Dacite 753 607 380, 600 18 4.1 0.018
VK-4.1 Dacite 679 600 370, 570 15 4.4 0.04
VK-1.2 Dacite 711 200 540 11 4.8 0.03
GS-3.1 Dacite 520 573 570 10 4.4 0.065

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 483

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

mostly in the pseudo-single-domain (PSD) range. In tephrite sample, the grain size of
titanohematite related to the single domain, whereas in dacite and basanite samples
titanomagnetite grains show multi domain behaviour (Fig. 9).

Fig. 7. Typical thermomagnetic curves for represantative samples. Thermomagnetic curve of

phonotephrite, benmorite, basalt and hawaiite samples (a, b, c, d) pointing out a Curie point at
500570C. Tephrite and mugearite (e, f) samples showing Curie temperatures around 600620C.
Thermomagnetic curve of trachyte sample (g) might indicate the formation of a less ferromagnetic
phase, which carries less strong remanence. The dacite rock (h) showing different Curie point, the
irreversible thermomagnetic curve displays a magnetic phase with Curie temperature of 560C on
cooling and higher Curie temperature phases of 450 and 620C compatible with that of the
alteration of titanomaghemite to hematite. Basanite sample (i) shows low Curie temperature in the
heating curve and the alteration of high-Ti titanomagnetite to low-Ti magnetite in the cooling curve
(arrows indicate cooling and heating curves).

484 Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009)

 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

Fig. 8. Normalized IRM acquisition curves showing the presence of magnetite and
magnetite+hematite for basic to acidic rocks (maximum applied field is 1500 mT) (see Fig. 3 for
symbol key).

3.4. Remanence Experiments

Alternating field (AF) or thermal demagnetization experiments are important to detect
secondary magnetic minerals with different coercivities that could carry important
magnetizations, affecting paleomagnetic directions.
AF demagnetization experiments indicate the presence of a soft/weak magnetization
component for mueagarite, trachyte and basanite samples (Fig. 10a,b,c) and a hard/strong
component for basalt, phonotephrite and tephrite samples (Fig. 10d,e,f) with a MDF
(median destructive field) value of 944 mT and 50200 mT, respectively.
In addition to hysteresis measurements, AF demagnetization of NRM (filled circles),
ARM (filled triangels) and SIRM (open squares) was carried out (Fig. 10af) to identify
the domain states (Lowrie and Fuller, 1971) with respect to median destructive field
(MDF) values. According to Lowrie and Fuller test (Lowrie and Fuller, 1971), MDF
values of ARM are more stable than MDF’s of SIRM (Fig. 10) showing the existence of
single domain grains (Dunlop, 1981) in basic series.
Thermal demagnetization results of six representative samples are shown on the
normalized magnetization (J/J0) versus temperature plot (Fig. 11). The most stable
magnetization curve is obtained from tephrite, with an unblocking temperature of 600C.
The basanite sample shows the weakest magnetic property with a stepwise decreasing
behaviour, suggesting the alteration of different types of magnetic minerals. The variation
of J/J0 in 350400C for dacite and trachyte samples could illustrate the oxidation of
Ti-rich titanomagnetites to Ti-poor titanomagnetites. A slowly decreasing curve until

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 485

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Fig. 9. Day diagram showing the distribution of the grain sizes (see Fig. 3 for symbol key).

580C is obtained for basalt samples which stands for low-Ti titanomagnetites as the main
magnetic carriers. Whilst from the high-field thermomagnetic curves a dominant Ti-rich
titanomagnetite with the Curie temperature about 200C is detected, and no evident
second magnetic phase is present (Fig. 7i), the thermal demagnetization curves of basanite
display three magnetic phases (Fig. 11). The first phase with the unblocking temperature
of about 200C corresponds to Ti-rich titanomagnetite. The second phase is evidenced by
an increase of magnetization in the interval 250 to 500C. This phase corresponds to the
presence of small titano-maghemite particles of a near superparamagnetic (SP) behaviour.
The most oxidized third Fe-Ti magnetic phase has a blocking temperature about 650C.

4. DISCUSSION

The rocks used in this study are collected from Upper Cretaceous magmatic zone in
the western and central Pontides (Fig. 1). They display variable rock magnetic signatures.
One group that consists of phonotephrite, benmoreite, basalt and hawaiite samples has
single ferromagnetic phase with Curie temperatures of 500570C. The cooling and
heating curves exhibit no or little differences showing the existence of Ti-poor
titanomagnetite. As revealed microscopically, the grain size of the magnetite is around
10100 m. According to the hysteresis ratios, the grain sizes are nearly PSD, e.g low
Hcr/Hc values and MDF values of ARM that are more stable than MDF’s of SIRM. This

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 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

type samples probably have preserved the original and stable magnetic remanences. The
tephrite sample is characterized by a Curie temperature of ~600C. It preserves larger
grain size (100 m) showing single domain grain size according to its hysteresis
parameters. The magnetic properties of tephrite are characterized by relatively strong
magnetic susceptibility (2308  105) and natural remanent magnetization (NRM)
(5.2 A/m). The IRM acquisition curve indicates the presence of high and low coercivity
minerals in the sample. Alternating field demagnetization of the IRM shows that the soft
coercivity component is gradually demagnetizated at 200 mT. However, the hard
coercivity component, which is dominant, remains and cannot be demagnetized in these
fields. Multidomain (MD) Ti-rich titanomagnetite or low-temperature oxidized
titanomaghemite are typically observed in basanites, with Curie temperature below
250C; such rocks can be saturated in low fields and give a MDF value of the order of
10 mT. The dacites possess different magnetization components that are identified in both
demagnetization characteristics of NRM and thermomagnetic experiments. Microscopy
and rock magnetic measurements reveal high level of low-temperature oxidation
dominated in MD titanomagnetite.
Rock magnetic and microscopy observations are in good agreement, both showing the
oxidation degrees of the magnetic grains. The polished sections show that tephrite with
the largest opaques and big size of ilmenite lamellaes indicate high temperature oxidation.
High level of low-temperature oxidation are observed in dacites and basanites whereas the
transformation of titanomagnetite to titanomaghemite corresponds to thermomagnetic
curves by large differences in cooling and heating curves, and thermal demagnetization
curves of NRM with different magnetization components. The degree of such low

Fig. 10. Normalized AF demagnetization curves of NRM, IRM and ARM (NRM: filled circles;
ARM: filled triangels; IRM: open squares).

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 487

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Fig. 11. Typical thermal demagnetization curves of representative samples (see Fig. 3 for symbol
key).

temperature oxidation transforms titanomagnetite to titanomaghemite, which is commonly

dependent on the purity of the crystalline lattice of the original titanomagnetite, presence
or absence of water, nucleations and vacancies of more oxidized Fe-Ti oxides, variations
of grain sizes, texture, and quantity of original magnetic minerals.
Magnetic susceptibility values of the rocks can be used to classify the different rock
types with respect to their different magma types. Because of very different conditions in
the field, the process of alteration of original magnetic Fe-Ti minerals results in secondary
minerals of variable composition (titanomaghemite, titanohematite, pseudobrookite,
exceptionally magnetite and hematite) and also in different intensity. Thus, we can find
the different natural remanent magnetization (NRM) in the same petrological types of
rocks. The most characteristic magnetic parameter is supposed to be the magnetic
susceptibility of rocks. It will be used in the following section to facilitate the relation
between geochemical composition and magnetic properties of the rocks.
It is known that magnetic susceptibility is in close relation with the magnetite content
of rocks. Thus it is useful in classifying the igneous rocks with respect to their silica
amount in the rocks (Fig. 12a). The high magnetic susceptibility in basic rocks
corresponds to a SiO2 content from 45 to 54 wt%, whereas low susceptibility values in
intermediate to acidic rocks have the SiO2 contents from 54 to 65 wt%. It is shown that
a general decreasing trend with increasing SiO2 concentration follows the magnetization
with a correlation coefficient of 0.78. In the diagram of magnetic susceptibility versus
Fe/Ti most of the basic rocks exhibit high Fe/Ti with increasing susceptibility, whereas
the intermediate to acidic samples show lower Fe/Ti ratios. Generally we can recognize
a linear increasing trend in Fe/Ti from basic to acidic rocks with increasing magnetic
susceptibility that could be defined with a correlation coeffient of 0.573 (Fig. 12b).
However, basanites (GS-2.2, GS4.2), hawaiite (GS-2.4) and basalt (DV-3.1) samples, that

488 Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009)

 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

show divergence among the main trend, show low Fe/Ti ratio with increasing
susceptibility. The high Ti amount in these rocks can result from olivine crystallization
that reduces the Fe ratio in the magma. To compare the relationship of different magma
types and the magnetic susceptibility Mg numbers are plotted against magnetic
susceptibility values. The susceptibility values show two different increasing trends with
increasing Mg numbers that could be seen in both basic and intermediate-acidic rock
types (Fig. 12c). The mugearite samples with intermediate susceptibility values
(1200  105) show a transition towards the acidic trend.
The Mg numbers of the rocks that reflect the degree of the magma differentiation can
also be used to compare other magnetic properties as determined by thermomagnetic and
hysteresis measurements (Figs. 7 and 9). Both rock magnetic and mineralogical studies
indicate that the composition of titanomagnetite change due to high to low temperature
oxidation processes (Fig. 7). The Curie temperatures vs. magma differentiation plot
indicates that most of the samples cluster in the 500600C area (Fig. 13a). This indicates
the presence of titanomagnetite as shown on representative thermomagnetic curves on

Fig. 12. Variation of magnetic susceptibility with (a) SiO2, (b) Fe/Ti and (c) Mg numbers (see
Fig. 3 for symbol key).

Stud. Geophys. Geod., 53 (2009) 489

 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Fig. 13. Variation of Curie temperatures with (a) magma differentiation, and (b) magnetic
susceptibility (see Fig. 3 for symbol key).

Fig. 7. However, the relation between the Curie temperatures and the magnetic
susceptibility of the different rock types illustrates that no systematic trend could be
distinguished. (Fig. 13b). Figs. 14a,b show the diagram between hysteresis parameters
(Hcr/Hc; Jrs/Js) and Mg numbers in both basic and acidic rocks. We distinguish a line
between the dacites and the basanites that are situated in the MD range and the single
domain titanohematite of the tephrite sample from the rest of the samples which
corresponds to PSD titanomagnetite. The range of the PSD area is limited to Mg numbers
of 30 to 65 (Fig. 14a,b). No correlation between domain states and the magma
differentiation seems to occur due to strong influence of the high-temperature oxidation,
which is the process that causes the formation of the ilmenite lamellae and subdivide the
originally titanomagnetite grain into smaller areas.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Volcanic rocks sampled in the western and central Pontides are related to Upper
Cretaceous arc magmatism. The investigated rocks are predominantly differentiated into
basanites, tephrite, mugearties, hawaiite, basalts, trachytes and dacites. Based on the
thermomagnetic measurements, most of the basic rocks with high magnetic susceptibility
and NRM, show minor or no alteration. Samples with very low intensity like basanites but
high magnetic susceptibility and intermediate to acidic rocks (trachyte, dacite) are
characterized by high and low-temperature oxidation. Hysteresis in most of the samples
obtained by AF-IRM and AF-ARM measurements correspond to pseudo-single domain
titanomagnetites, whereas single domain titanohematite is common in tephrite. This is
also observed in IRM measurements, where in trachyte and mueagarite a low coercivity
phase is inferred to be titanomagnetite and a high coercivity phase, occurs in tephrite.
During AF and thermal demagnetization process it was observed that tephrite show the
highest resistance against the cleaning processes.

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 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

Fig. 14. Variation of (a) Hcr/Hc and (b) Jrs/Js hysteresis parameters with magma differentiation
(see Fig. 3 for symbols).

The composition, grain sizes of the magnetic phases was also measured in polished
and thin sections. The most abundant Fe-Ti oxide minerals are titanomagnetites. The
magnetic minerals in basic series are in cubic and elongated shape between 10100 m.
The ulvöspinel content in titanomagnetite is found to be between 1020 wt% for basic
rocks and 60 wt% for the basanites. The opaque minerals in intermediate to acidic rocks
are in rounded shapes with grain sizes of 10-30 m and intermediate Ti amount
(ulvöspinel content between 2040 wt%.
Geochemical study revealed that the lavas evolved through fractional crystallization.
The paragenesis of olivine+magnetite+clinopyroxene stands for samples with high
magnetic intensity, whereas the assemblages of amphibole+clinopyroxene+plagioclase
and plagioclase+clinopyroxene+biotite characterizes the crystalline phases of the
intermediate and acidic series rocks, respectively.
a) In general it has been pointed out that the Mg numbers of the rocks can be
a useful parameter for the identification of the relation between the degree of the
magma differentiation and the magnetic properties. The following conclusions
can be done: (a) the Mg numbers are between 4570 in basic rocks and 2545
in intermediate to acidic rocks. The increase in Mg corresponds to a decrease in
SiO2,
b) magma differentiation that increases with the increasing susceptibility,
c) Fe/Ti concentration increases with the susceptibility and thus with magma
differentiation,
d) low to high temperature oxidation reflects the magnetic carriers, thus there is no
correlation between magma differentiation and the Curie temperatures and
hysteresis parameters of the rocks.
As a result it has been shown that the Mg numbers in the range from 30 to 65
correspond to PSD titanomagnetite, whereas the Mg numbers in intermediate to acidic
rocks are between 20 and 30 and in basic rocks between between 65 and 70 and
correspond to MD titanomagnetite.

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 M. Cengiz Cinku et al.

Acknowledgements: The authors are very grateful to Prof. Dr. V. Bachtadse and to Prof. Dr.
N. Petersen for their generous help using the laboratory of the Department of Earth and
Environmental Science of LMU-München, Germany for the rock magnetic measurements and a
special thank to Mrs. M. Weiss who gived information about the equipments and measurements.
The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. F. Hrouda, Dr. A. Kontny and one anonymous
reviewer for their reviews of the manuscript.

APPENDIX

Table A.1. Major and trace element data from Upper Cretaceous volcanic rocks in the Pontides
(Mg# = atomic Mg/(Mg + Fe2+)  100, assuming Fe3+/Fe2+ = 0.16; LOI - loss on ignition).

Sample GS-2.1 GS-2.2 GS-3.1 GS-2.4 GS-4.2 VK-2.1 VK-4.1 VK-1.2

SiO2 53.31 44.07 62.58 51.61 42.72 64.61 64.90 66.60

TiO2 0.478 1.826 0.813 1.170 1.820 0.566 0.569 0.537
Al2O3 14.84 12.68 16.83 17.36 12.71 15.68 15.80 15.64
Fe2O3 4.98 8.80 3.58 7.22 8.69 3.40 3.41 3.46
MnO 0.103 0.281 0.035 0.220 0.088 0.020 0.019 0.013
MgO 2.78 8.15 1.36 4.12 8.54 1.60 1.57 0.57
CaO 6.708 15.239 4.920 9.728 13.880 4.216 4.231 3.572
Na2O 5.08 3.02 3.92 3.63 4.53 3.53 3.64 3.53
K2O 3.097 2.012 2.627 1.818 0.165 1.824 1.841 2.328
P2O5 0.136 0.374 0.336 0.236 0.507 0.152 0.154 0.204
LOI 7.81 3.03 2.40 2.22 5.76 3.88 3.34 3.10
Sum 99.45 99.48 99.42 99.45 99.41 99.50 99.53 99.56
Mg# 29.51 38.07 22.17 29.97 38.73 26.09 25.67 10.99
Ba 949 1539 595 366 135 388 368 424
Co 4 23 5 28 37 12 8 <3
Cr 75 145 94 66 226 30 25 35
Cu 15 63 14 152 42 18 18 16
Nb 8 27 20 10 27 10 10 11
Nd <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50
Ni 21 135 38 22 123 20 18 11
Pb 19 32 14 <4 6 16 15 13
Pr <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50
Rb 71 85 85 34 6 55 56 68
Sb <5 <5 <5 5 <5 <5 <5 <5
Sc 12 26 10 31 19 8 8 7
Sn <2 <2 2 3 6 3 <2 <2
Sr 485 569 541 519 507 374 410 409
Ta <5 <5 <5 <5 7 <5 <5 <5
Th 11 8 16 <5 8 <5 11 8
V 104 147 87 282 141 61 57 56
W <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5
Y 6 13 9 9 15 <3 <3 <3
Zn 76 50 88 88 116 57 62 57
Zr 139 88 207 107 137 104 101 125

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 Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Investigation of Upper Cretaceous Volcanic Rocks

Table A.1. Continuation.

Sample AS-3.1 AS-2.1 AS-1.1 KS-1.1 KS-3.1 IB-1.1 IB-1.2 YN-2.1

SiO2 49.08 47.99 48.42 46.21 48.93 56.28 59.06 60.09

TiO2 0.754 0.956 0.871 0.835 0.858 0.665 0.648 0.43
Al2O3 15.94 16.00 15.75 16.97 17.45 19.58 18.56 18.02
Fe2O3 9.01 9.57 9.41 9.84 9.44 4.17 4.03 3.58
MnO 0.184 0.209 0.170 0.176 0.216 0.116 0.126 0.09
MgO 4.12 3.76 3.88 4.06 4.10 1.15 1.09 1.24
CaO 6.388 5.566 6.394 6.916 8.800 3.952 3.043 3.74
Na2O 3.37 5.67 5.32 2.92 2.43 5.03 5.26 4.26
K2O 4.796 2.833 2.961 4.012 1.804 4.671 5.432 6.3
P2O5 0.426 0.550 0.458 0.183 0.185 0.308 0.303 0.23
LOI 5.17 6.29 5.72 7.26 5.24 3.40 1.74 1.5
Sum 99.42 99.48 99.40 99.41 99.45 99.47 99.43 99.49
Mg# 25.54 22.76 23.62 23.63 24.57 17.14 16.86 20.62
Ba 885 934 676 391 520 741 820 923
Co 23 32 26 31 20 4 4 6
Cr 18 <3 <3 3 <3 <3 <3 5
Cu 125 78 105 91 40 50 88 22
Nb 8 8 9 6 7 <2 3 4
Nd <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50
Ni 16 8 13 11 9 6 <3 2
Pb 6 12 11 18 6 28 21 10
Pr <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50 <50
Rb 117 86 76 42 32 102 113 85
Sb <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5
Sc 23 23 22 25 23 6 6 5
Sn <2 3 2 <2 <2 2 <2 <2
Sr 804 205 645 600 366 901 676 489
Ta 7 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5
Th 5 12 12 <5 <5 9 8 7
V 227 264 265 259 243 165 162 81
W <5 <5 6 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5
Y 18 15 14 11 12 13 3 23
Zn 93 109 93 154 102 63 64 52
Zr 123 135 124 79 104 108 102 109
SiO2 55.8 51.58 54.8 65.35 50.72 59.63 63.53 61.38
TiO2 0.92 0.81 0.90 0.36 1.22 0.8 0.75 0.79
Al2O3 15.89 17.93 16.91 15.00 18.27 17.93 14.53 15.52
Fe2O3 7.55 9.28 7.88 3.32 7.455 4.936 6.753 6.641
MnO 0.16 0.1 0.21 0.1 0.17 0.13 0.08 0.07
MgO 4.04 3.82 4.20 0.94 4.96 1.35 1.41 1.71
CaO 6.84 5.1 7.04 1.51 10.3 2.06 1.77 1.83
Na2O 4.71 6.56 4.75 3.7 3.55 5.58 4.9 4.66
K2O 1.34 1.99 1.36 6.64 0.9 5.22 3.73 4.86
P2O5 0.23 0.36 0.25 0.19 0.24 0.4 0.45 0.48

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