Late Palaeozoic-Neogene sedimentary and tectonic development of the Tauride continent and adjacent Tethyan ocean basins in eastern Turkey: New data and integrated interpretation

Abstract

The eastern Taurus exemplifies continental rifting, passive margin development, Late Cretaceous melange genesis and ophiolite emplacement. Following Triassic rifting, a carbonate platform developed near sea level in the south (Munzur unit), whereas its northern extension (Neritic-pelagic unit) subsided into deep water during Late Jurassic-Late Cretaceous. Triassic-Cretaceous deep-water sediments and volcanics restore as distal deep-water slope/base of slope units. Jurassic-Cretaceous basic volcanics, interbedded with pelagic sediments, represent emplaced oceanic seamounts. Supra-subduction zone ophiolites formed to the north (c. 93 Ma), probably within an Inner Tauride ocean, and were emplaced southwards by trench-margin collision during latest Cretaceous (c. 75-66 Ma). The margin underwent flexural uplift/erosion and then subsidence/foredeep-infill. Part of the Tauride continent in the south (Malatya Metamorphics) deeply underthrust/subducted northwards, then exhumed rapidly by the late Maastrichtian (c. 65 Ma). To the south, oceanic lithosphere (e.g. Go center dot ksun ophiolite) was thrust northward beneath Tauride (Malatya) crust from a more southerly oceanic basin (Berit ocean), and intruded by Late Cretaceous subduction-related granitic rocks (88-82 Ma). Allochthonous units were assembled during the latest Cretaceous, followed by thick-skinned folding/thrusting, generally southwards, related to regional collision tectonics during Mid-Late Eocene. Part of the unmetamorphosed Tauride platform and its overriding Late Cretaceous allochthon were apparently displaced >60 km northeastwards. Mid-Late Miocene regional collision drove variable folding and re-thrusting, in places northwards. Regional comparisons suggest that the Tauride carbonate platform (Geyik Dag) narrowed eastwards, such that the palaeogeography of the E Taurides differed from farther west, influencing the late Mesozoic-Cenozoic structural development.