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Abstract: In southern Turkey (Taurus Chain or Taurides) and southeastern Turkey (Border Folds of the Arabian Plate), nearly complete Cambrian to Ordovician successions are preserved. Four major sedimentary sequences are defined according to the main transgressive events and the subsequent shelf progradations. These sequences allow us to link the Turkish mostly distal Lower Palaeozoic detritals to the more proximal Arabian formations in spite of contrasting facies. The Lower Palaeozoic development is outlined through four successive steps defined in southern Turkey: (1) initiation of a cratonic platform regime (Terreneuvian, i.e. earliest Cambrian; Depositional Sequence 1), with fluviatile conglomerates and red-bed sediments associated with volcanics; (2) development of a stable marine platform (late Terreneuvian? to Early Ordovician; Depositional Sequences 2 and 3), including widespread but diachronous “middle Cambrian” Carbonates and subsequent storm-dominated, detritals; (3) tectonic instability (Middle Ordovician) leading to a new palaeogeography on the Gondwana platform with the differentiation of a sag basin (Bedinan–Qasim depocenter; lower part of Depositional Sequence 4); and (4) glaciation (latest Ordovician; upper part of Depositional Sequence 4) identified by glaciomarine deposits forming the Hirnantian glacial record. This thick (>2000m) detrital succession records a first-order, long-term, subsidence-driven Cambrian to Ordovician transgressive trend, and includes second-order sequences reflecting interactions between global eustasy and tectonic instability. On a larger scale, the identification of recurrent sequence stratigraphic features with similar trends in the Cambrian–Ordovician successions on the Arabian platform, implies that a former location of the Taurus domain cannot be situated in the (present day) Eastern Mediterranean area, but should lie directly north of the Arabian platform. This location places southern Turkey at the junction between the North African segment of the Gondwana siliciclastic shelf to the West (present-day coordinates), and the Eastern Arabian segment, in good agreement with mixed faunal signatures from both areas. Primary control of the tectonostratigraphic development of southern Turkey during the Lower Palaeozoic may be a forced evolution from arc/platform to rift/drift transitions (“cordilleran” model) that has migrated progressively eastwards from the Avalonian domain along the northern Gondwana margin to the Arabian domain, throughout the Lower Palaeozoic. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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Copyright of Revue de Micropaleontologie is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Lower Miocene conglomerates in the Köprü and Manavgat basins contain pebbles that can be confidently traced back to their source areas, owing to their distinctive lithologies. Among others, are the green Huğlu volcanics (Late Trias), known only in allochthonous units from the Beyşehir region, or the Alanya blueschists, restricted to the Sugözü unit in the Alanya Massif. The problem is to find out how this detrital material could have travelled about eighty kilometres through the Taurus calcareous units during the Miocene. Fortunately, the present drainage system is not yet fully reorganised in the Taurus, and large areas of the chain still retain fossil morphologies. These may be seen in the upper karstic areas of the chain, where a large part of a high surface (1500-2200 m) is preserved. On this surface several dry valleys, some of them 400 m deep, with meanders and tributaries, have been recognised. They are disconnected from the present drainage, and represent fragments of a former network directed NE-SW, at right angles to the structures of the Taurus chain. The age of this network may be attributed indirectly to the Early Miocene. On the other hand, the presence of blueschist fragments in conglomerates of the Aksu Basin cannot be explained through a NE-SW-directed drainage system, and implies instead that the Alanya Massif extends to the west below the Miocene cover of the Antalya Gulf. Later, Late Miocene faulting fragmented the high surface and disrupted the drainage system. Uplift of the Taurus chain followed in the Pliocene and Quaternary, and is responsible for the extensive karstic circulation seen today, which left aside remnants of the ancient morphology of the chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triassic eclogite and blueschist facies rocks occur as a thrust sheet, 25-km long and over 2-km thick, in an Eocene fold-and-thrust belt in northwest Turkey along the I˙zmir–Ankara suture. The thrust sheet consists mainly of metabasites with minor marble, phyllite and metachert, and rare lenses of serpentinite. The common blueschist facies mineral assemblage in the metabasites is sodic amphibole+epidote+albite+chlorite+phengite±garnet. Sodic amphibole commonly shows replacement by barroisite, and there is continuous petrographic transition from blueschist–metabasites to barroisite-bearing epidote–amphibolites. Eclogite with the mineral assemblage of garnet+sodic pyroxene+sodic–calcic amphibole+epidote is found only in one locality. P–T conditions of the epidote–blueschist facies metamorphism are estimated as 450±50 °C and 11±2 kbar. The blueschist formation was followed by a decrease in pressure and increase in temperature, leading to the development of barroisite-bearing epidote–amphibolites. Phengite, sodic amphibole and barroisite Ar/Ar ages from three metabasic rocks range between 215 and 205 Ma, and indicate Late Triassic high-pressure metamorphism. The Triassic blueschists in northwest Turkey constitute part of a much larger allochthonous tectonic unit of Triassic mafic volcanic rocks. They probably represent the upper layers of a Triassic oceanic plateau, which was accreted to the Laurasian margin during the latest Triassic. The close spatial association of the Triassic and Cretaceous blueschists along the I˙zmir–Ankara suture suggests that the suture represents a long-lived plate boundary of Late Palaeozoic to early Tertiary age. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Explores the stratigraphy and paleontology of lower Paleozoic rocks in the Karadere-Zirze area in northern Turkey. Discussion on the formation of ordovician rocks; Correlation and regional relationships of Paleozoic rocks.

Examines the depositional setting of Kimmeridgian carbonate facies in south-western Turkey. Characterization of depositional environment; Composition of Upper Jurassic Akkuyo Formation; Depositional condition of the basin.

Studies the supposed Precambrian, and Cambrian stratigraphy of the Penbegli-Tut inlier in southeastern Turkey. Presence of mostly clastic rocks of the late Precambrian age overlaid by unfossiliferous quartzites of the Zabuk formation; Conformable succession by the Koruk Formation and the Sosink Formation; Comparability with the Derik-Mardin area.

Abstract: This paper provides the first general account of the facies associations that fill a Miocene fault bounded basin located in the central part of the Isparta Angle (Turkey), in order to define process-controlled sedimentary units reflecting environmental changes in a general tectonic and stratigraphic framework. The northern and western parts of the Köprüçay Basin are occupied by extensive conglomeratic successions belonging to three distinct alluvial fan–fan delta systems (AFD), which pass laterally into pelagic mudstones in the deeper part of the basin. In spite of syn- and post-sedimentary tectonics, most of the sedimentary units still display their original relationships. This allows definition and interpretation of the conspicuous facies changes in the clastic successions according to their position along complete sections across the basin. The bulk of the paper is thus devoted to the description of 11 sub-facies types that have been identified in the three AFDs, and their environmental interpretation. As a result, the origin and sedimentary infill of the Köprüçay Basin appears primarily controlled from Langhian to Tortonian by the N–S trending Kirkkavak Fault. After uplift and erosion of the western part of the basin, the final closure of the Isparta Angle resulted in a westward displacement of the Anatolian block during Upper Tortonian. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Çatallar Basin is one of the Miocene basins located in the southern part of the Bey Dağları Massif (SW Turkey). This basin has been reinvestigated and new stratigraphic and sedimentological data are now presented. The Çatallar Basin lies in paraconformity on the Bey Dağları carbonate platform of Late Cretaceous to Palaeogene age. It consists of an impersistent, shallow-marine carbonate base (Karabayır formation, Late Oligocene to Early Burdigalian) followed by an onlapping detrital sequence including the Akçay and Bağbeleni formations (Langhian to Serravallian). The Akçay formation mainly contains turbidites in which several debris-flows and olistostromes are intercalated. The lowest debris flows derive from the local carbonate platforms of Cretaceous and Palaeogene age. Higher, the debris flows and olistostromes contain large carbonate blocks deriving from nearby sources (Bey Dağları platform carbonates), whereas the accompanying pebbles originate from the allochthonous ophiolitic units located farther to the north (Lycian Nappes) or to the east (Antalya Nappes). The origin of these ophiolitic detritus is a matter of debate. The new data obtained in this study favour a northern origin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]