[1] The GPS-derived velocity field (1988–2005) for the zone of interaction of the Arabian, African (Nubian, Somalian), and Eurasian plates indicates counterclockwise rotation of a broad area of the Earth's surface including the Arabian plate, adjacent parts of the Zagros and central Iran, Turkey, and the Aegean/Peloponnesus relative to Eurasia at rates in the range of 20–30 mm/yr. This relatively rapid motion occurs within the framework of the slow-moving (∼5 mm/yr relative motions) Eurasian, Nubian, and Somalian plates. The circulatory pattern of motion increases in rate toward the Hellenic trench system. We develop an elastic block model to constrain present-day plate motions (relative Euler vectors), regional deformation within the interplate zone, and slip rates for major faults. Substantial areas of continental lithosphere within the region of plate interaction show coherent motion with internal deformations below ∼1–2 mm/yr, including central and eastern Anatolia (Turkey), the southwestern Aegean/Peloponnesus, the Lesser Caucasus, and Central Iran. Geodetic slip rates for major block-bounding structures are mostly comparable to geologic rates estimated for the most recent geological period (∼3–5 Myr). We find that the convergence of Arabia with Eurasia is accommodated in large part by lateral transport within the interior part of the collision zone and lithospheric shortening along the Caucasus and Zagros mountain belts around the periphery of the collision zone. In addition, we find that the principal boundary between the westerly moving Anatolian plate and Arabia (East Anatolian fault) is presently characterized by pure left-lateral strike slip with no fault-normal convergence. This implies that “extrusion” is not presently inducing westward motion of Anatolia. On the basis of the observed kinematics, we hypothesize that deformation in the Africa-Arabia-Eurasia collision zone is driven in large part by rollback of the subducting African lithosphere beneath the Hellenic and Cyprus trenches aided by slab pull on the southeastern side of the subducting Arabian plate along the Makran subduction zone. We further suggest that the separation of Arabia from Africa is a response to plate motions induced by active subduction.

GPS constraints on continental deformation in the Africa-Arabia-Eurasia continental collision zone and implications for the dynamics of plate interactions

A correlation of tectonic units of the Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaridic system of orogens, including the substrate of the Pannonian and Transylvanian basins, is presented in the form of a map. Combined with a series of crustal-scale cross sections this correlation of tectonic units yields a clearer picture of the three-dimensional architecture of this system of orogens that owes its considerable complexity to multiple overprinting of earlier by younger deformations.

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The Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaridic orogenic system: correlation and evolution of tectonic units

Abstract The two main Tethyan sutures of Turkey, the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan and the Intra-Pontide sutures, are reviewed through several well-studied transects crossing the suture regions. Both sutures have formed during the Early Tertiary continental collisions following northward subduction of Tethyan oceanic lithosphere. The İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture is represented along most of its c. 2000 km length by Paleocene and younger thrust, which emplace the upper crustal rocks of the northern continent over that of the southern continent with an intervening tectonic layer of Cretaceous subduction-accretion complexes. These thrusts constitutes a profound stratigraphic, structural, magmatic and metamorphic break, of at least Carboniferous to Palaeocene age and form the main boundary between Laurasia and Gondwana in the Turkish transect. Voluminous subduction-accretion complexes of Triassic and Cretaceous ages occur respectively to the north and south of the suture giving the antithetic subduction polarities during these two periods. This, and evidence for a major accretionary orogeny of Late Triassic age north of the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture suggest that two separate oceanic lithospheres, of Carboniferous to Triassic (Palaeo-Tethys) and of Triassic to Cretaceous ages (Neo-Tethys) respectively have been consumed along the suture. The final continental collision along the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture was slightly diachronous and occurred in the earliest Palaeocene to the west and in the Late Palaeocene to the east. The c. 800 km long Intra-Pontide suture is younger in age and have formed during the Early Eocene and younger continental collisions linked to the opening of the Western Black Sea Basin as an oceanic back-arc basin. At present the North Anatolian Fault, which came into existence in the Late Miocene, follows the course of the older Intra-Pontide suture.

Tethyan sutures of northern Turkey

Neotectonics of Turkey – a synthesis

This paper presents a synthetic view of the geodynamic evolution of the Zagros orogen within the frame of the Arabia-Eurasia collision. The Zagros orogen and the Iranian plateau preserve a record of the long-standing convergence history between Eurasia and Arabia across the Neo-Tethys, from subduction/obduction processes to present-day collision (from ~ 150 to 0 Ma). We herein combine the results obtained on several geodynamic issues, namely the location of the oceanic suture zone, the age of oceanic closure and collision, the magmatic and geochemical evolution of the Eurasian upper plate during convergence (as testified by the successive Sanandaj-Sirjan, Kermanshah and Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic arcs), the P-T-t history of the few Zagros blueschists, the convergence characteristics across the Neo-Tethys (kinematic velocities, tomographic constraints, subduction zones and obduction processes), together with a survey of recent results gathered by others. We provide lithospheric-scale reconstructions of the Zagros orogen from ~ 150 to 0 Ma across two SW-NE transects. The evolution of the Zagros orogen is also compared to those of the nearby Turkish and Himalayan orogens. In our geotectonic scenario for the Zagros convergence, we outline three main periods/regimes: (1) the Mid to Late Cretaceous (115-85 Ma) corresponds to a distinctive period of perturbation of subduction processes and interplate mechanical coupling marked by blueschist exhumation and upper-plate fragmentation, (2) the Paleocene-Eocene (60-40 Ma) witnesses slab break-off, major shifts in arc magmatism and distributed extension within the upper plate, and (3) from the Oligocene onwards (~ 30-0 Ma), collision develops with a progressive SW migration of deformation and topographic build-up (Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone: 20-15 Ma, High Zagros: ~12-8 Ma; Simply Folded Belt: 5-0 Ma) and with partial slab tear at depths (~10 Ma to present). Our reconstructions underline the key role played by subduction throughout the whole convergence history. We finally stress that such a long-lasting subduction system with changing boundary conditions also makes the Zagros orogen an ideal natural laboratory for subduction processes.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/66E4243B7AFD642333291037F213B38E/S001675681100046Xa.pdf/div-class-title-zagros-orogeny-a-subduction-dominated-process-div.pdf

Zagros orogeny: a subduction-dominated process

Dedicated to the memory of three pioneers, Ihsan Ketin, Sirri Erinc and Melih Tokay, and a recent student, Aykut Barka, who burnt himself out in pursuit of the mysteries of the North Anatolian Fault. ▪ Abstract The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) is a 1200-km-long dextral strike-slip fault zone that formed by progressive strain localization in a generally westerly widening right-lateral keirogen in northern Turkey mostly along an interface juxtaposing subduction-accretion material to its south and older and stiffer continental basements to its north. The NAF formed approximately 13 to 11 Ma ago in the east and propagated westward. It reached the Sea of Marmara no earlier than 200 ka ago, although shear-related deformation in a broad zone there had already commenced in the late Miocene. The fault zone has a very distinct morphological expression and is seismically active. Since the seventeenth century, it has shown cyclical seismic behavior, with century-long cycles beginning in the east and progressing westwa...

The north anatolian fault: a new look

A 50 kyr-long exceptionally well-dated and highly resolved stalagmite oxygen (δ 18O) and carbon (δ 13C) isotope record from Sofular Cave in northwestern Turkey helps to further improve the dating of Greenland Interstadials (GI) 1, and 3–12. Timing of most GI in the Sofular record is consistent within ±10 to 300 years with the “iconic” Hulu Cave record. Larger divergences (>500 years) between Sofular and Hulu are only observed for GI 4 and 7. The Sofular record differs from the most recent NGRIP chronology by up to several centuries, whereas age offsets do not increase systematically with depth. The Sofular record also reveals a rapid and sensitive climate and ecosystem response in the eastern Mediterranean to GI, whereas a phase lag of ∼100 years between climate and full ecosystem response is evident. Finally, results of spectral analyses of the Sofular isotope records do not support a 1,470-year pacing of GI.

http://www.manfredmudelsee.com/publ/pdf/Timing-and-climatic-impact-of-Greenland-interstadials-recorded-in-stalagmites-from-northern-Turkey.pdf

Timing and climatic impact of Greenland interstadials recorded in stalagmites from northern Turkey

Geology and Tectonic Evolution of the Pontides

Late Cretaceous–Early Eocene Tethyan evolution of western Turkey is characterized by ophiolite obduction, high-pressure/low-temperature metamorphism, subduction, arc magmatism and continent–continent collision. The imprints of these events in the Upper Cretaceous–Lower Eocene sedimentary record of western Anatolia are studied in thirty-eight well-described stratigraphic sections. During the Late Cretaceous period, western Turkey consisted of two continents, the Pontides in the north and the Anatolide-Taurides in the south. These continental masses were separated by the Izmir-Ankara Neo-Tethyan ocean. During the convergence the Pontides formed the upper plate, the Anatolide-Taurides the lower plate. The arc magmatism in the Pontides along the Black Sea coast is biostratigraphically tightly constrained in time between the late Turonian and latest Campanian. Ophiolite obduction over the passive margin of the Anatolide-Tauride Block started in the Santonian soon after the inception of subduction in the Turonian. As a result, large areas of the Anatolide-Tauride Block subsided and became a region of pelagic carbonate sedimentation during the Campanian. The leading margin of the Anatolide-Tauride Block was buried deeply and was deformed and metamorphosed to blueschist facies during Campanian times. The Campanian arc volcanic rocks in the Pontides are conformably overlain by shaley limestone of Maastrichtian–Palaeocene age. However, Maastrichtian sedimentary sequences north of the Tethyan suture are of fore-arc type suggesting that although arc magmatism ceased by the end of the Campanian age, continent–continent collision was delayed until Palaeocene time, when there was a change from marine to continental sedimentation in the fore-arc basins. The interval between the end of the arc magmatism and continent–continent collision may have been related to a northward jump of the subduction zone at the end of Campanian time, or to continued obduction during the Maastrichtian.

/pdf/obduction-subduction-and-collision-as-reflected-in-the-upper-43nl7e21ds.pdf

Okan Tüysüz

Papers

Tethyan sutures of northern Turkey

The north anatolian fault: a new look

Timing and climatic impact of Greenland interstadials recorded in stalagmites from northern Turkey

Geology and Tectonic Evolution of the Pontides

Obduction, subduction and collision as reflected in the Upper Cretaceous–Lower Eocene sedimentary record of western Turkey