Tethyan evolution of Turkey: A plate tectonic approach

Abstract The Tethyan evolution of Turkey may be divided into two main phases, namely a Palaeo-Tethyan and a Neo-Tethyan, although they partly overlap in time. The Palaeo-Tethyan evolution was governed by the main south-dipping (present geographic orientation) subduction zone of Palaeo-Tethys beneath northern Turkey during the Permo-Liassic interval. During the Permian the entire present area of Turkey constituted a part of the northern margin of Gondwana-Land. A marginal basin opened above the subduction zone and disrupted this margin during the early Triassic. In this paper it is called the Karakaya marginal sea, which was already closed by earliest Jurassic times because early Jurassic sediments unconformably overlie its deformed lithologies. The present eastern Mediterranean and its easterly continuation into the Bitlis and Zagros oceans began opening mainly during the Carnian—Norian interval. This opening marked the birth of Neo-Tethys behind the Cimmerian continent which, at that time, started to separate from northern Gondwana-Land. During the early Jurassic the Cimmerian continent internally disintegrated behind the Palaeo-Tethyan arc constituting its northern margin and gave birth to the northern branch of Neo-Tethys. The northern branch of Neo-Tethys included the Intra-Pontide, Izmir—Ankara, and the Inner Tauride oceans. With the closure of Palaeo-Tethys during the medial Jurassic only two oceanic areas were left in Turkey: the multi-armed northern and the relatively simpler southern branches of Neo-Tethys. The northern branch separated the Anatolide—Tauride platform with its long appendage, the Bitlis—Poturge fragment from Eurasia, whereas the southern one separated them from the main body of Gondwana-Land. The Intra-Pontide and the Izmir—Ankara oceans isolated a small Sakarya continent within the northern branch, which may represent an easterly continuation of the Paikon Ridge of the Vardar Zone in Macedonia. The Anatolide-Tauride platform itself constituted the easterly continuation of the Apulian platform that had remained attached to Africa through Sicily. The Neo-Tethyan oceans reached their maximum size during the early Cretaceous in Turkey and their contraction began during the early late Cretaceous. Both oceans were eliminated mainly by north-dipping subduction, beneath the Eurasian, Sakaryan, and the Anatolide- Tauride margins. Subduction beneath the Eurasian margin formed a marginal basin, the present Black Sea and its westerly prolongation into the Srednogorie province of the Balkanides, during the medial to late Cretaceous. This resulted in the isolation of a Rhodope—Pontide fragment (essentially an island arc) south of the southern margin of Eurasia. Late Cretaceous is also a time of widespread ophiolite obduction in Turkey, when the Bozkir ophiolite nappe was obducted onto the northern margin of the Anatolide—Tauride platform. Two other ophiolite nappes were emplaced onto the Bitlis—Poturge fragment and onto the northern margin of the Arabian platform respectively. This last event occurred as a result of the collision of the Bitlis—Poturge fragment with Arabia. Shortly after this collision during the Campanian—Maastrichtian, a subduction zone began consuming the floor of the Inner Tauride ocean just to the north of the Bitlis—Poturge fragment producing the arc lithologies of the Yuksekova complex. During the Maastrichtian—Middle Eocene interval a marginal basin complex, the Maden and the Cungus basins began opening above this subduction zone, disrupting the ophiolite-laden Bitlis—Poturge fragment. The Anatolide-Tauride platform collided with the Pontide arc system (Rhodope—Pontide fragment plus the Sakarya continent that collided with the former during the latest Cretaceous along the Intra Pontide suture) during the early to late Eocene interval. This collision resulted in the large-scale south-vergent internal imbrication of the platform that produced the far travelled nappe systems of the Taurides, and buried beneath these, the metamorphic axis of Anatolia, the Anatolides. The Maden basin closed during the early late Eocene by north-dipping subduction, synthetic to the Inner-Tauride subduction zone that had switched from south-dipping subduction beneath the Bitlis—Poturge fragment to north dipping subduction beneath the Anatolide—Tauride platform during the later Palaeocene. Finally, the terminal collision of Arabia with Eurasia in eastern Turkey eliminated the Cungus basin as well and created the present tectonic regime of Turkey by pushing a considerable piece of it eastwards along the two newly-generated transform faults, namely those of North and East Anatolia. Much of the present eastern Anatolia is underlain by an extensive melange prism that accumulated during the late Cretaceous—late Eocene interval north and east of the Bitlis—Poturge fragment.