Revision of "Leptite-gneisses" in the Menderes Massif: a supracrustal metasedimentary origin

The Pan-African basement of the Menderes Massif comprises a regular lithological succession that reaches a thickness of 8 km, the oldest units of which are, in ascending order, so-called leptite-gneisses, a quartzite-sequence transition zone and mica schists. New findings suggest that the protoliths for the leptite-gneisses, proposed to be of volcanic origin in previous studies, were predominantly elastic sediments of litharenitic composition, Geochemical data indicate that the protoliths for the leptite-gneisses were of cratonic provenance. Because they have undergone Pan-African polymetamorphism and are intruded by approximately 550 Ma gneisses of granitic origin, it is believed that the …