EVOLUTION OF MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC SEDIMENTARY BASINS IN SE TURKEY

Paleozoic sedimentary basins in southeastern Turkey are closely related to the geology of the coeval basins in the Arabian plate and can be considered as their extention to the north. By the Carboniferous, this contiunity was interrupted and several tectonic highs were developed separating the sedimentary basins in the northern part of the plate. Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary sequences are also continuous in SE Turkey and in the northern part of the Arabian Plate. This continuity can be explained by the lack of any major tectonic event during the sedimentation of the late Permian-early Trassic successions. The Permian and Triassic sedimentary basin strata here are characteristic of typical foreland sequences on the passive margin of the Arabian Plate.

Triassic-Jurassic deposition occurred in similar foreland basins, which were undergoing contractional deformation, whereas the Cretacous sedimentary basins started their evolution by the Albian-Aptian in the upper plate of a north-dipping subduction zone as the oceanic crust of the Arabian plate was consumed beneath Anatolia. Widespread carbonate rocks were deposited in these extentional basins in SE Turkey, which were then overthurst to the south on the late Campanian-early Maastrichtien allohthonous units. Time gaps and disconformities within the carbonate sequences show that the entire area was still tectonically active during their deposition.

In the early Eocene, a new basin was formed following a continent-continent collision event in the region. A peripheral-type basin was active during rifting of the Red Sea in the early-mid Miocene. Final suturing of the Arabian plate to Eurasia (Anatolia) took place in the middle-late Miocene, as marked by the overthurst systems of the same age.