Tectonics of Eastern Anatolian Plateau; Final Stages of
Collisional Orogeny in Anatolia
Yücel Yılmaz1, İbrahim Çemen2 Erdinç
Yiğitbaş3
1- Istanbul Technical University, Mining Faculty, Maslak, 80620 Istanbul
Turkey. yyilmaz@khas.edu.tr.
Corresponding author.
2- The University of Alabama, Department of Geological Sciences,
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. icemen@ua.edu
3- Çanakkale 18 Mart University, Department of Geology.
Çanakkale-Turkey.eyigitbas@comu.edu.tr
Abstract .
The East Anatolian High Plateau, part of the Alpine-Himalayan orogen, is
a 200 km wide, approximately E-W trending belt surrounded by two
peripheral mountains of the Anatolian Peninsula. The plateau is covered
by a thick, interbedded Neogene volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Outcrops
of the underlying rocks are rare. Therefore, contrasting views were
proposed on the nature of the basement rocks.
New geological and geophysical data suggest the presence of an
ophiolitic mélange-accretionary complex under cover rocks of Eastern
Anatolia. The cover units began to be deposited during the closure of
the NeoTethyan Ocean that was located between the Pontide arc to the
north, and the continental slivers drifted away from the Arabian Plate
to the south. The surrounding orogenic belts experienced different
orogenic evolution. The Eastern Anatolian orogen was formed during the
later stages of the development of the surrounding orogenic belts. In
this period, the mélange-accretionary prism that occupied a large
terrain behaved like a wide and thick cushion, which did not allow a
head-on collision of the bordering continents.
NeoTethyan oceanic lithosphere was eliminated from entire eastern Turkey
by the Late Eocene. The eastern Anatolia began to rise when the northern
advance of the Arabian Plate continued after the total demise of the
oceanic lithosphere. The present stage of the elevation of the East
Anatolian Plateau as a coherent block started during the Late Miocene.