Tectonic Evolution of the Foothills Belt and Foreland Areas of the Taurus Overthrust Belt, Southeast Turkey

J. R. Gillcrist, J. M. L. Cater, E. Ozcan, A. C. Ries, J. W. Tucker

In the Foothills belt of the Taurus overthrust belt in southeast Turkey, a number of Late Cretaceous to late Miocene southward-migrating flexural foredeeps were generated in response to contractional and crustal loading events occurring along their internal margins. From a study of the disposition and deformation of the foreland basin sediments, the relative importance of the following events can be demonstrated: (1) A thin-skinned shortening of the northward-facing Arabian passive margin, which occurred during closure of Neotethys and ophiolitic obduction during the Late Cretaceous. Molasse-type marine and nonmarine sediments generated during this event are restricted to a narrow east-west-trending, southward-migrating flexural foredeep of Campanian to Paleocene age. (2) A late Miocene contractional event related to continental collision between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. The molasse sediments generated by this event are still being deposited and are volumetrically similar to those generated by the Late Cretaceous event.

The importance of this late Miocene contractional event is emphasized, and its structural expression differs throughout the North Arabian platform. In the Foothills belt domain, the structures are largely thin skinned and the Late Cretaceous thrust front has been rejuvenated. In the foreland area to the south, the late Miocene shortening has a much deeper structural expression, reactivating old extensional faults and resulting in the inversion of Paleozoic- and Mesozoic-age half-graben basins up to 400 km south of the Taurus thrust front.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.