Temperate skeletal carbonate deposits in the Northeasternmost part of the Taurus Belt during Miocene (Turkey)

Abstract

The caibonates currently located out of the N30 and S30 latitudes are controlled by the temperate-climate conditions. When we look at the composition of carbonate sediments from modem open shelf seas we note broad skeletal grain associations. On group contains mainly benthic foraminifera, molluscs, barnacles and calcareous red algae (with echinoderms, ostracods, sponge spicules and worm tubes in relatively minor quantities). This group has been termed foramol and the assemblage is typical of the temperate-water carbonates. During the Lower Miocene (Aquitanian ? -Burdigalian) the northeasternmost part of the Taurus belt was influenced by temperate climatic conditions at a paleolatitude of approximate 35-40 N. Theassociated limestones is mainly skeletal g rain stone and rudstones ; skeletal grain include benthic foraminifera, (Austrotrillina, Miogypsinoides, Miogypsina, Archaias, Amphistegina, Miolepidocyclina , Peneroplis), calcareous red algae (Lithothamnium, Archaeolithothamnium ), bryozoa, echinoderm and pelecypod. Benthic foraminifera and calcareous red algae remains are dominant but bryozoan-rich and echinoderm-rich limestones are present locally. Peloids are very rare or absent. Non-carbonate grains are quartz, feldspar and volcanic rocks fragments. The Miocene limestone in the northeasternmost part of the Taurus belt share similar characteristics with temperate Upper Cretaceous Sahinkaya limestones of NE-Turkey, Miocene limestone in the Kop Mountains, Permian Limestone of Bowen Basin and Cenozoic limestones of New Zealand, suggesting that differences in carbonate sedimentation between tropical and non-tropical region have been consistent through time and reflect real sedimentological differences.