MORPHOTECTONIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA REGION AND THE SURROUNDINGS

Anatolia is one of the most severely deformed region in the world. This is the result of the convergence between Arabian Plate with Anatolia following the total consumption of the Neo-Tethyan ocean. Since the collision the shortening deformation continued in the east Anatolia, and consequently the East Anatolia was squeezed, shortened, thickened and elevated.

Since the Pliocene time, N-S shortening began to be transferred by the westward escape of Anatolian Plate with the development of the two transform faults namely the North Anatolian Transform fault and the East Anatolian transform fault. The Black Sea mountain ranges began to elevate, and thus delimited extent of the Black Sea realm in the south. Rate of the uplift may be measured from the sea terraces and elevated beaches.

In this talk morphotectonic development of the Southern Black Sea region will be discussed in the light of morphological and geological data.