Paleomagnetic results along the Bitlis-Zagros suture zone in SE Anatolia, Turkey: Implications for the activation of the Dead Sea Fault Zone

Abstract

The tectonic evolution of SE Anatolia is associated with the collision between the Taurides and the Arabian Platform in the early Cenozoic, after the final closure of the southern branch of the Neotethys ocean during Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene times. The ongoing deformation was characterized by northward movement of Arabia, followed by westward extrusion of Anatolia, having been displaced along the northern and eastern Anatolian transform faults. The neotectonic deformation history between the Anatolian Plate and the Arabian platform since the closure of the southern Neotethyan oceanic basin from Late Cretaceous to present has not been studied in detail paleomagnetically. Therefore we carried out a paleomagnetic study of Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks at 34 localities along the Bitlis-Zagros suture zone in SE Anatolia located in the boundary region between the Taurides and the Arabian platform and delimited by the Dead Sea Fault.