Ş. Can Genç

When Did the Western Anatolian Grabens Begin to Develop

Abstract To solve a long-lasting controversy on the timing and mechanism of generation of the western Anatolian graben system, new data have been collected from a mapping project in western Anatolia, which reveal that initially north-south trending graben basins were formed under an east-west extensional regime during Early Miocene times. The extensional openings associated with approximately north-south trending oblique slip faults provided access for calc-alkaline, hybrid magmas to reach the surface. A north-south extensional regime began during Late Miocene time. During this period a major breakaway fault was formed. Part of the lower plate was uplifted and cropped out later in the Bozdağ, Horst, and above the upper plate approximately north-south trending cross-grabens were developed. Along these fault systems, alkaline basalt lavas were extruded. The north-south extension was interrupted at the end of Late Miocene or Early Pliocene times, as evidenced by a regional horizontal erosional surface which developed across Neogene rocks, including Upper Miocene-Lower Pliocene strata. This erosion nearly obliterated the previously formed topographic irregularities, including the Bozdağ elevation. Later, the erosional surface was disrupted and the structures which controlled development of the Lower-Upper Miocene rocks were cut by approximately east-west trending normal faults formed by rejuvenated north-south extension. This has led to development of the present-day east-west trending grabens during Plio-Quaternary time.

Ophiolitic and metamorphic assemblages of southeast Anatolia and their significance in the geological evolution of the orogenic belt

The southeast Anatolian orogen may be divided into three roughly east-west trending structural zones formed as a result of continental collision between the Taurus platform and the Arabian continent. Along the orogenic belt, metamorphic and ophiolitic rocks occur widely. The ophiolites represent remnants of the ocean or oceans which were totally consumed between these converging continental blocks during Late Cretaceous to Miocene period. Metamorphic rocks formed from the oceanic as well as the continental rocks which were incorporated into a nappe stack during the consumption of the oceanic lithosphere and the progressive southward advance of the nappes toward the Arabian continent. The metamorphic units, together with the ophiolite associations, provide stratigraphic and petrologic evidence indicating time, place, and environment of formation of these units; the metamorphic units also provide evidence of nappe transportation stages which are complementary to the data derived from the sedimentary successions in the evaluation of the orogenic evolution of southeast Anatolian orogen.

Evolution of the Bayramiç magmatic complex, northwestern Anatolia

Abstract During the Oligocene–Middle Miocene period widespread magmatic activity developed in Western Anatolia, following the continental collision between the Sakarya continent and the Tauride–Anatolide platform. This produced both intrusive and extrusive rocks, which appear to be associated in space and time, as exemplified from the Bayramic area. In the Bayramic area, the magmatic activity started with the intrusion of the Evciler granite, and the coeval lower volcanic association. This was followed by the development of the upper volcanic association. These rock groups form collectively the Bayramic magmatic complex, which was generated under an on-going north–south compressional regime. The Bayramic magmatic complex has a subalkaline composition, displaying a calcalkaline trend. Trace elements and REE contents resemble to island-arc and collision-related magmas. According to the isotope values the Bayramic magmatic complex was derived from the magmas of lithospheric mantle origin, which were later contaminated, while passing through the thick continental crust, in a post-collisional tectonic setting, during the Oligocene–Early Miocene period. The latest product of the magmatism is the Late Miocene–Pliocene basalt lavas. Their geochemical properties are clearly different from the Oligocene–Early Miocene magmatic rocks. The basalts were generated when the north–south compression gave way to the north–south extensional regime.

A post-collision slab-breakoff model for the orgin of the Middle Eocene magmatic rocks of the Armutlu–Almacık belt, NW Turkey and its regional implications

Abstract Middle Eocene magmatic rocks (MEMR) (49.3±2 to 38.1±1.9 Ma) formed an east–west trending belt after continental collision and rest unconformably on pre-Middle Eocene units as a common cover. The origin and tectonic setting of MEMR are controversial as both arc and post-collisional settings are proposed. We present new geological and petrological data from the western part of the belt, between the Armutlu Peninsula and the Almacık Mountains. The MEMR are represented by basic to intermediate volcanic rocks, dykes and coeval granites. The lavas exhibit a continuous trend from basalt to dacite. The MEMR as a whole display low- to medium-K subalkaline (to rarely mildly alkaline) affinities and a calc-alkaline trend. On N-type Mid Ocean Ridge Basalt-normalized spidergrams these rocks display relative enrichment in large ion lithophile elements, slight enrichment in light rare earth elements, but depletion in Ta and Nb. Geochemical data and Sr, Nd, Pb and δ18O isotope compositions, coupled with ϵNd(T) values, reveal that the MEMR magma was of hybrid type, with both depleted sub-continental lithospheric mantle and crustal components. We conclude that the MEMR was produced in a post-collisional setting, and we favour a slab-breakoff mechanism to explain this as it is consistent with the known Middle Eocene tectonic evolution of northwestern Turkey.

The geology and morphology of the Antakya Graben between the Amik Triple Junction and the Cyprus Arc

In southeastern Turkey, the NE-trending Antakya Graben forms an asymmetric depression filled by Pliocene marine siliciclastic sediment, Pleistocene to Recent fluvial terrace sediment, and alluvium. Along the Mediterranean coast of the graben, marine terrace deposits sit at different elevations ranging from 2 to 180 m above present sea level, with ages ranging from MIS 2 to 11. A multisegmented, dominantly sinistral fault lying along the graben may connect the Cyprus Arc in the west to the Amik Triple Junction on the Dead Sea Fault (DSF) in the east. Normal faults, which are younger than the sinistral ones, bound the graben’s southeastern margin. The westward escape of the continental İskenderun Block, delimited by sinistral fault segments belonging to the DSF in the east and the Eastern Anatolian Fault in the north caused the development of a sinistral transtensional tectonic regime, which has opened the Antakya Graben since the Pliocene. In the later stages of this opening, normal faults developed along the southeastern margin that caused the graben to tilt to the southwest, leading to differential uplift of Mediterranean coastal terraces. Most of these normal faults remain active. In addition to these tectonic movements, Pleistocene sea level changes in the Mediterranean affected the geomorphological evolution of the area.

Monitoring tectonic uplift and paleoenvironmental reconstruction for marine terraces near Maǧaracik and Samandaǧ, Hatay Province, Turkey.

Near Hatay, the Antakya-Samandağ-Cyprus Fault (ASCF), East Anatolian and Dead Sea Fault Zones, the large faults that form the edges of the African, Anatolian, Cyprus and Arabian Plates, all produce large earthquakes, which have decimated Hatay repeatedly. Near Samandağ, Hatay, differential vertical displacement on the ASCF has uplifted the southeastern side relative to northwestern side, producing large fault scarps that parallel the Asi (Orontes) River. Tectonic uplift coupled with Quaternary sealevel fluctuations has produced several stacked marine terraces stranded above current sealevel. This study dated 24 mollusc samples from 10 outcrops on six marine terraces near Samandağ electron spin resonance (ESR). Ages were calculated using time-averaged and volumetrically averaged external dose rates, modelled by assuming typical water depths for the individual species and sediment thicknesses estimated from geological criteria. Uplift rates were then calculated for each fault block. At all the Mağaracık terraces, the dates suggest that many shells were likely reworked. On the 30 m terrace at Mağaracık IV (UTM 766588-3999880), Lithophagus burrows with in situ shells cross the unconformity. One such shell dated to 62 ± 6 ka, setting the minimum possible age for the terrace. For all the Mağaracık terraces at ∼30 m above mean sealevel (amsl), the youngest ages for the reworked shells, which averaged 60 ± 3 ka for six separate analyses, sets the maximum possible age for this unit. Thus, the terrace must date to 60-62 ± 3 ka, at the MIS 3/4 boundary when temperatures and sealevels were fluctuating rapidly. Older units dating to MIS 7, 6, and 5 likely were being eroded to supply some fossils found in this terrace. At Mağaracık Dump (UTM 765391-4001048), ∼103 m amsl, Ostrea and other shells were found cemented in growth position to the limestone boulders outcropping there <2.0 m above a wave-eroded notch. If the oysters grew at the same time as the wave-cut notch and the related terrace, the date, 91 ± 13 ka, for the oysters, this fault block has been uplifted at 1.19 ± 0.15 m ky(-1), since MIS 5c. At Samandağ Kurt Stream at 38 m amsl, molluscs were deposited fine sandy gravel, which was likely formed in a large tidal channel. Four molluscs averaged 116 ± 5 ka. If these molluscs have not been reworked, this fault block has uplifted at 0.34 ± 0.05 m ky(-1) since the MIS 5d/5e boundary. The differences in these uplift rates suggests that at least one, and possibly two, hitherto undiscovered faults may separate the Mağaracık Dump site from the other Mağaracık sites and from the Samandağ Kurt Stream site.