Abstract
The Central Pontides of N Turkey represents a mobile orogenic belt of the southern Eurasian margin that experienced several phases of exhumation associated with the consumption of different branches of the Neo-Tethys Ocean and the amalgamation of continental domains. Our new low-temperature thermochronology data help to constrain the timing of these episodes, providing new insights into associated geodynamic processes. In particular, our data suggest that exhumation occurred at (1) ~110 to 90 Ma, most likely during tectonic accretion and exhumation of metamorphic rocks from the subduction zone; (2) from ~60 to 40 Ma, during the collision of the Kirşehir and Anatolide-Tauride microcontinental domains with the Eurasian margin; (3) from ~40 to 25 Ma, either during the early stages of the Arabia-Eurasia collision (soft collision) when the Arabian passive margin reached the trench, implying 70 to 530 km of subduction of the Arabian passive margin, or during a phase of trench advance predating hard collision at ~20 Ma; and (4) ~11 Ma to the present, during transpression associated with the westward motion of Anatolia. Our findings document the punctuated nature of fault-related exhumation, with episodes of fast cooling followed by periods of slow cooling or subsidence, the role of inverted normal faults in controlling the Paleogene exhumation pattern, and of the North Anatolian Fault in dictating the most recent pattern of exhumation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1831-1857 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Tectonics |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Funding
1Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, 2Now at Department of Science, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy, 3Institute of Energy and Environment, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 4Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany, 5Geoscience Center, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, 6Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, 7Department of Geological Engineering, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey P. B., C. Y., and T.S. were funded by TOPO-EUROPE, an initiative of the European Science Foundation (project VAMP: Vertical Anatolian Movements Project) and by the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program Initial Training Networks (ITN; project ALErT: Anatolian pLateau climatE and Tectonic hazards). T. S. and P. B. acknowledge support from the Emmy Noether Programm of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant SCHI 1241/1-1 awarded to T. S. We are indebted to A. Çiner for logistical support and with C. Manntschke, P. Balling, and P. Catarraso for helping with sample preparation. We thank A. Okay, A. Pourteau, and R. Oberhänsli for introducing the geology of Turkey, C. Faccenna, F. Rossetti, D. Gürer, and G. Göçmengil for fruitful discussions and inspiration. Finally, we acknowledge Editor J. Geissman, Associate Editor O. Göğüş, one anonymous reviewer, L. Matenco, and D. van Hinsbergen for providing constructive revisions. Raw data can be found in the supporting information, while additional information is available from the authors upon request.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| 3Institute of Energy and Environment, University of Sao Paulo | |
| 4Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam | |
| GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences | |
| Hacettepe University | |
| Istanbul Technical University | 7Department |
| University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo | |
| Università degli Studi Roma Tre | 3Institute |
| H2020 European Research Council | |
| State University of New York Potsdam | |
| Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | SCHI 1241/1-1 |
Keywords
- Anatolia westward motion
- Arabia-Eurasia collision
- Central Pontides
- inversion tectonics
- thermal modeling
- trench advance