The southern Menderes Massif (western Turkey): geochronology and exhumation history

In the southern flank of the Menderes Massif, western Turkey, an E-W-trending quartz-mica vein was recognized in the augen gneisses of the so-called 'core' series. Rb-Sr determinations of two undeformed or slightly deformed mica books from the vein yielded Palaeocene-Early Eocene ages (c. 62-43 Ma) for the vein formation. The new data are interpreted to closely post-date the time of major Barrovian-type High Temperature/Medium pressure (HT/MP) main Menderes metamorphism (MMM) and coeval crustal-scale top-to-the-N-NNE Tertiary deformation that affected the whole Massif. Subsequent cooling occurred in the Middle Eocene (36 +/- 2 Ma Ar-Ar mica ages)