Abstract
Lithospheric drips have been interpreted for various regions around the globe to account for the recycling of the continental lithosphere and rapid plateau uplift. However, the validity of such hypothesis is not well documented in the context of geological, geophysical and petrological observations that are tested against geodynamical models. Here we propose that the folding of the Central Anatolian (Kırşehir) arc led to thickening of the lithosphere and onset of “dripping” of the arc root. Our geodynamic model explains the seismic data showing missing lithosphere and a remnant structure characteristic of a dripping arc root, as well as enigmatic >1 km uplift over the entire plateau, Cappadocia and Galatia volcanism at the southern and northern plateau margins since ~10 Ma, respectively. Models show that arc root removal yields initial surface subsidence that inverts >1 km of uplift as the vertical loading and crustal deformation change during drip evolution.
Highlights
Lithospheric drips have been interpreted for various regions around the globe to account for the recycling of the continental lithosphere and rapid plateau uplift
Reconciling model predictions with the observed tectonics, we show that lithospheric instability model is consistent with entire surface uplift of >1 km since ~10 Ma as well as features having a symmetry in Central Anatolia, for instance, lower seismic velocities in the mantle, Galatia and Cappadocia volcanism in the northern and southern margins of the plateau
The presence of slow seismic velocity anomalies at shallow lithospheric levels around the high velocity anomalies (Kırşehir arc) is represented in the high resolution seismic cross section cutting through Western-Central and the Central-East Anatolia (D–D′)[18]
Summary
Lithospheric drips have been interpreted for various regions around the globe to account for the recycling of the continental lithosphere and rapid plateau uplift. We consider a case in Central Anatolia where folding of a Tethyan arc may have caused lithospheric instability through localized thickening of the arc root The development of this instability as a style of “drip tectonics”, in turn, may account for the uplift (>1 km) over the entire plateau and volcanism at the plateau margins since ~10 Ma in which their cause remains enigmatic. Quantitative paleoelevation estimates suggest that the southern margin of Central Anatolian Plateau was below sea level during the Miocene and has experienced >2 km surface uplift since the last 8 Ma14,15 These ~8 My old sedimentary deposits in the Mut and Ermenek basins (southern margin/Taurides) (Fig. 1a) are rather undeformed and in sub-horizontal positions. According to geochemical investigations from the Late Miocene Galatian Volcanic Province (in the northern margin), later stage Alkaline volcanics (~10 Ma to recent) are produced by decompression melting of the asthenospheric mantle in relation to regional extension[24,25,26] (Fig. 1a)
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