Palaeozoic Tectonic History of Se Turkey

Abstract

A review of published data for the Palaeozoic of SE Turkey, together with facies distribution and palaeo‐fault maps derived from regional field data, are used to interpret the Palaeozoic tectonic history of the region. Intracratonic rifting events in the Early Cambrian and the Early Ordovician led to syn‐rift deposition within fault‐bounded basins. Marine transgressions across the region in the mid‐Cambrian and mid‐to‐Late Ordovician were probably influenced by regional thermal subsidence after each rifting event, in addition to (glacio‐)eustatic mechanisms. Marine transgressions in the Early Silurian and Early Carboniferous are thought to have been entirely eustatic in origin. Poorly‐constrained, Late Palaeozoic facies variations across the region can be related to uplift during the Caledonian and Hercynian orogenic episodes. Widespread tilting and erosion before the Cretaceous, which has removed much of the Late Palaeozoic record from this region, resulted from uplift at the edges of a major rift system which was initiated during the Triassic‐to‐Jurassic opening of the Southern Neotethys.

Evidence of the diagenetic history of sediment composition in Precambrian-early Paleozoic rocks: a systematic study from the Southeast Anatolian Autochthon, Mardin (Derik-Kızıltepe), Turkey

“…There are two petroleum systems in Southeastern Anatolia, namely those of early Paleozoic and Cretaceous ages. Of these, it was stated that black shales of the Upper Ordovician-Devonian Handof Formation (Ala and Moss 1979) and Upper DevonianLower Carboniferous Köprülü Formation (Cater and Tunbridge 1992) are potential rock sources. However, petroleum formation in the Paleozoic petroleum system is not as frequently encountered as in the Cretaceous petroleum system, which seems to be related to the absence of a proper basin producing high amounts of organic material, insufficient biological productivity, and/or no preservation of organic material in the Paleozoic period (Yalçın Erik et al 2005;Yalçın Erik and Özçelik 2007).…”

New record of a Middle Devonian brachiopod fauna from the Northern Arabian Plate, Zap Anticline, Çukurca-Hakkari, Southeastern Turkey

“…Studies of the Devonian-Early Carboniferous rocks in the north of Arabian plate show that they were deposited in either terrestrial or shallow marine environments (Beydoun 1991, Al-Juboury & Al-Hadidy 2009, Najafzadeh et al 2010, Hoșgör et al 2011. Typical shallow-marine deposits are recorded in southern Turkey (Cater & Tunbridge 1992), northern Syria (Best et al 1993), northwest Iran (Najafzadeh et al 2010) and northern Iraq (Wolfard 1981). The Devonian and Lower Carboniferous of the Arabian Plate is represented in Southeastern Anatolia (Fig.…”

“…The exact position of the Köprülü section in the Yýðýnlý Formation remains to be clarified in order to reinforce our results, but it is clear that the earliest levels of this formation had already begun to settle since the Middle Devonian. The Paleozoic evolution of Southeast Turkey was influenced by three main variables: global eustatic sea-level changes, regional tectonics related to major orogenic events and the formation of Neotethys and local tectonics related to intracontinental rifting and other subsidence variations (Cater & Tunbridge 1992). Paleogeographically the Late Ordovician to Early Carboniferous of northern Arabia suggests that North Africa and Arabia formed a broad stable continental shelf on the northern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent bordering the Paleo-Tethys Ocean.…”

Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering

“…Cretaceous to Tertiary Taurus orogenic belt through the north (Cater and Tunbridge, 1992). Eocene to Recent in age (Ala and Moss, 1979).…”