The First Orogen-scale Cross Section of the Western Taurides Fold-thrust Belt, Southern Turkey

Abstract:

Central and southern Anatolia contains a record of intra-oceanic subduction followed by accretion of continent-derived carbonate thrust slices below oceanic lithosphere preserved as ophiolite klippen. The region provides a unique natural laboratory to study the dynamics of continental subduction. However, the configuration of plate boundaries in the system is poorly constrained, the number of plates involved is debated, and the distribution of convergence over the Anatolian subduction zones remains poorly constrained.

The thin-skinned Taurides fold-thrust belt in the South of Anatolia was formed by the accretion of a carbonate platform during continental subduction below oceanic lithosphere. The platform was part of a continental fragment that rifted and drifted from Gondwana’s northern margin in the Early Mesozoic.

We aim to use kinematic constraints to reconstruct the plate configuration through time. In this contribution, we present the first balanced cross section of the Taurides fold-thrust belt. We show more than 150 km of east-west shortening, at a high angle to overall Africa-Eurasia convergence, from the Late Cretaceous until at least the Pliocene. Three to four km of stratigraphy, ranging from Precambrian to Miocene age is incorporated in nappes.

Our shortening estimate is the first step in reconstructing the initial configuration of the subduction zone geometrical evolution, and the paleogeography of the accreted carbonate platform. The rate of convergence can be determined, and convergence obliquity can be estimated.

This cross section will be complimented with further sections, a thermochronology study, and a palaeomagnetic study, to create a detailed 2.5D reconstruction of the orogenesis through time.