Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2122/11503
Authors: Gürer, Derya* 
van Hinsbergen, Douwe J. J.* 
Matenco, Liviu* 
Corfu, Fernando* 
Cascella, Antonio* 
Title: Kinematics of a former oceanic plate of the Neotethys revealed by deformation in the Ulukışla basin (Turkey)
Journal: Tectonics 
Series/Report no.: /35 (2016)
Issue Date: Oct-2016
DOI: 10.1002/2016TC004206
Subject ClassificationCretaceous to Paleocene N-S and E-W extension was overprinted by Eo-Oligocene shortening
The geology of Central Anatolia can be explained by a three-plate system in Cretaceous to Paleogene time
Reconstruct upper plate kinematics to infer subduction evolution and relative plate and trench motions within the Neotethyan ocean
Abstract: Kinematic reconstruction of modern ocean basins shows that since Pangea breakup a vast area in the Neotethyan realm was lost to subduction. Here we develop a first-order methodology to reconstruct the kinematic history of the lost plates of the Neotethys, using records of subducted plates accreted to (former) overriding plates, combined with the kinematic analysis of overriding plate extension and shortening. In Cretaceous-Paleogene times, most of Anatolia formed a separate tectonic plate—here termed “Anadolu Plate”—that floored part of the Neotethyan oceanic realm, separated from Eurasia and Africa by subduction zones. We study the sedimentary and structural history of the Ulukışla basin (Turkey); overlying relics of this plate to reconstruct the tectonic history of the oceanic plate and its surrounding trenches, relative to Africa and Eurasia. Our results show that Upper Cretaceous-Oligocene sediments were deposited on the newly dated suprasubduction zone ophiolites (~92Ma), which are underlain by mélanges, metamorphosed and nonmetamorphosed oceanic and continental rocks derived from the African Plate. The Ulukışla basin underwent latest Cretaceous-Paleocene N-S and E-W extension until ~56Ma. Following a short period of tectonic quiescence, Eo-Oligocene N-S contraction formed the folded structure of the Bolkar Mountains, as well as subordinate contractional structures within the basin. We conceptually explain the transition from extension, to quiescence, to shortening as slowdown of the Anadolu Plate relative to the northwardadvancingAfrica-AnadolutrenchresultingfromcollisionofcontinentalrocksaccretedtoAnadolu with Eurasia, until the gradual demise of the Anadolu-Eurasia subduction zone.
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