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. Göksun 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 over-riding 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 Dağ) narrowed eastwards, such that the palaeogeography of the E Taurides differed from farther west, influencing the late Mesozoic-Cenozoic structural development.