Abstract
The Suluova Basin is a prominent member of the wide transtensional Amasya Shear Zone located at the central part of the North Anatolian Shear Zone. This basin is crucial and provides well-resolved data to understand the evolution of transtensional tectonic zones as well as the morphological and paleoenvironmental changes of North Anatolia during the Quaternary. Analysis of detailed stratigraphical sections, faulting data, and mammal paleontology reveals that the Suluova Basin has started to evolve as a closed half-graben along the NW–SE-trending, SW-dipping basin bounding fault zone with normal slip in the early Quaternary. Initial sedimentation mode of the basin was dominated by alluvial fan facies associations. Progressive basin subsidence resulted in an expansion of a freshwater lake at the basin depocenter as faults propagated westwards. Further extensions in the basin were caused to initiate the E–W-trending southern tectonic boundary. Newly created accommodation space hosted a vast freshwater lake during the Calabrian (~1.8–0.78 Ma) acting as a refugia for a rich faunal assemblage of large and small land mammals. The conditions prior to the onset of Middle Pleistocene (MIS19, ~0.79 Ma) is marked with increasing regional erosion where paleo-Lake Suluova was captured by the regional river system. Synchronously, the next phase of the shear zone formation was introduced with E–W-trending dextral and NE–SW-trending sinistral strike-slip faults, cross-cutting the former basin structure, forming new depocenters. These faults are still active with noticeable seismic activity and comprise future risks for the major cities of the region.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1239-1261 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019, Canadian Science Publishing. All rights reserved.
Funding
We thank Government of Amasya for supporting field studies and local sentients Hasan Varıs¸, Aydın Babacan for logistics, and Burçin As¸kım Gümüs¸ (Gazi University) for preliminary identification of mollusk fauna and paleoenvironmental analysis. Ozan Er-dal is supported by a TUBITAK grant (115Y132). The authors are thankful to Gültekin Göller, Barıs¸ Yavas¸, and Hüseyin Sezer (Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, İTÜ, Turkey) for scanning electron microscopy photographs, to Dimitris S. Kosto-poulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) for helping in identification of macromammals, and to Hilal Okur and Batuhan Ersoy (Sakarya University) for help during the fieldwork. The constructive comments of John Dewey, Ali Polat, Cihat Alçiçek, and two anonymous reviewers greatly improved the previous version of this article. This study is partially supported by TUBITAK (115Y132) and ITU-BAP (39925) grants and parts of a Ph.D. dissertation of both M.K.E. (2010) and O.E. (2019) under the supervision of Okan Tüysüz and S¸ evket S¸ en, respectively. We thank Government of Amasya for supporting field studies and local sentients Hasan Varış, Aydın Babacan for logistics, and Burçin Aşkım Gümüş (Gazi University) for preliminary identification of mollusk fauna and paleoenvironmental analysis. Ozan Erdal is supported by a TUBITAK grant (115Y132). The authors are thankful to Gültekin Göller, Barış Yavaş, and Hüseyin Sezer (Met-allurgical and Materials Engineering Department, İTÜ, Turkey) for scanning electron microscopy photographs, to Dimitris S. Kostopoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) for helping in identification of macromammals, and to Hilal Okur and Batuhan Ersoy (Sakarya University) for help during the fieldwork. The constructive comments of John Dewey, Ali Polat, Cihat Alçiçek, and two anonymous reviewers greatly improved the previous version of this article. This study is partially supported by TUBITAK (115Y132) and ITU-BAP (39925) grants and parts of a Ph.D. dissertation of both M.K.E. (2010) and O.E. (2019) under the supervision of Okan Tüysüz and Şevket Şen, respectively.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Burçin Aşkım Gümüş | |
| Gazi Üniversitesi | |
| Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu | 115Y132 |
| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | |
| Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Birimi, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi | 39925 |
Keywords
- Amasya Shear Zone
- North Anatolian Shear Zone
- Quaternary palaeoenvironment
- Suluova Basin
