THE FIRST OROGEN-SCALE CROSS SECTION OF THE WESTERN TAURIDES FOLD-THRUST BELT, SOUTHERN TURKEY
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.