Successive structural events in the Hatay ophiolite of southeast Turkey: Distinguishing oceanic, emplacement and post-emplacement phases of faulting

Abstract

New structural data are presented and interpreted for the Cretaceous Hatay ophiolite, which was emplaced onto the Arabian continental margin during latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) time. Although lacking a preserved metamorphic sole, a thick serpentinitic basal shear zone provides evidence of emplacement kinematics, whilst structures developed in an extensive Cenozoic sedimentary cover help to constrain the nature of post-emplacement deformation. Combining field structural measurements with palaeostress analyses enables several discrete structural events to be recognised, of which three appear to pre-date the Cenozoic sedimentary cover. The earliest event involved extension parallel to the ophiolitic sheeted dyke complex and relates to oceanic spreading whereas the second and the third events relate to compression and strike-slip during intra-oceanic displacement, or emplacement of the ophiolite onto the Arabian continental margin. Some structures at the base of or within the ophiolite that were previously attributed to sea-floor spreading processes (e.g. “oceanic detachment faults”) are more likely to have formed during subsequent ophiolite displacement/emplacement and post-emplacement formation of the regional Hatay Graben.