Multi-phased uplift of the southern margin of the Central Anatolian plateau, Turkey: A record of tectonic and upper mantle processes

Middle-Upper Miocene paleogeography of southern Turkey: insights from stratigraphy and calcareous nannofossil biochronology of the Olukpınar and Başyayla sections (Mut-Ermenek Basin)

“…In the Başyayla area (Figures 1A and 1B), the uppermost part of the Miocene marine succession of the Mut-Ermenek Basin horizontally caps (Cosentino et al 2012) the highly deformed Mesozoic rocks of the Bozkır unit and the Hadim nappe (Akay & Uysal 1988). In the same area, the maximum elevation of those undeformed marine sediments is around 2000 m, suggesting substantial long-wavelength uplift of the area after the deposition of those marine sediments (Cosentino et al 2012;Schildgen et al 2012aSchildgen et al , 2012b. most of the marine succession of the Ermenek area, corresponds to the NN5 calcareous nannofossil biozone (middle-late Langhian).…”

Stable isotope-based reconstruction of Oligo-Miocene paleoenvironment and paleohydrology of Central Anatolian lake basins (Turkey)

“…Parts of the Western Pontides were exhumed along a pre-Miocene ductile shear zone , while the active uplift of the Central Pontides at the northern plateau margin is attributed to stress across the restraining bend of the North Anatolian Fault since the Late Miocene (Yildirim et al 2011). Multiphase post-8 Ma surface uplift of the Central Taurides at the southern margin is associated with slab break-off, which likely also influenced the evolution of the CAP as a whole (Cosentino et al 2012;Schildgen et al 2012aSchildgen et al , 2012b. In the plateau interior of Anatolia OligoMiocene basin development was accompanied by intense Miocene volcanism in the Galatian Province (e.g., Wilson et al 1997).…”

“…Fission-track evidence points to an initial phase of Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene uplift of the Western Pontides in the northwest of the plateau (Zattin et al 2005;Okay et al 2008;Cavazza et al 2012), whereas the still ongoing differential surface uplift of the Central Pontides, which is mainly driven by the North Anatolian Fault Zone, started in the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene (Yildirim et al 2011). Equally important is the multiphased surface uplift history of the Central Taurides that border the CAP from the south, for which Mediterranean slab dynamics appear to have played a fundamental driving role in triggering a rapid phase of surface uplift post-8 Ma (Cosentino et al 2012;Schildgen et al 2012aSchildgen et al , 2012b.…”

“…Indeed, all studied successions were deposited prior to the onset of Late Neogene major surface uplift of the southern and northern plateau margins (Yildirim et al 2011;Cosentino et al 2012;Schildgen et al 2012aSchildgen et al , 2012b apart from parts of the Western Pontides, which were exhumed along a pre-Miocene ductile shear zone (Okay et al 2008). Based on our data, however, this relatively small topographic relief had no large effect on oxygen isotopes in precipitation on the plateau.…”

Abrupt tectonics and rapid slab detachment with grain damage

“…9). Slab detachment has thus been invoked to explain the topographic and tectonic changes at Vanuatu (14), the Alps and the Aegean (13), the Dabie shan (15), the Pannonian Basin (16), Central America (10), Borneo (17), Anatolia (18,19), Taiwan (20), East Timor (21), the Appenines (22), and during the Messinian Event (23,24).…”