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TECTONICS OF THE SOUTHEAST ANATOLIAN OROGENIC BELT
  • Yücel Yılmaz,
  • Erdinç Yiğitbaş,
  • İbrahim Çemen
Yücel Yılmaz
Istanbul Technical University

Corresponding Author:yyilmaz@khas.edu.tr

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Erdinç Yiğitbaş
Çanakkale 18 Mart University
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İbrahim Çemen
The University of Alabama
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Abstract

The tectonic development of the Southeast Anatolian Orogenic Belt (SAOB) is closely related to the demise of the NeoTethys Ocean, which was located between the Arabian and Eurasian plates from the late Cretaceous to Late Miocene. The ocean contained several continental slivers and intra-oceanic magmatic arcs. The continental slivers represent narrow tectonic belts rifted off and drifted away from the Arabian Plate while the NeoTethyan Ocean and the back-arc basins were opened. Later they collided with one another during the branches of the oceans were eliminated. In these periods, the continental slivers were involved in the subduction zone and turned into metamorphic massifs. During the Late Cretaceous, the first collision occurred when an accretionary complex was thrust over the Arabian Plate’s leading edge. Despite the collision, the ocean survived in the North and Its northward subduction generated a new intra oceanic arc, which collided later with the northerly located continental slivers. In this period, the metamorphic massifs and the intra-oceanic arc front migrated to the South. The new magmatic arc collided with the southerly transported nappe package during the Late Eocene. The amalgamated nappe pile eventually obducted onto the Arabian Plate during the Late Miocene. The collision produced escape structures during the Neotectonic period.
29 May 2023Published in Compressional Tectonics on pages 203-222. 10.1002/9781119773856.ch7