Punctuated Exhumation and Foreland Basin Formation and Infilling in (Circum)-Central Anatolia (Turkey) Associated with the Neo-Tethyan Closure

Abstract

Apatite fission-track data indicate that the (circum)-central Anatolian granitoids (CAG) were exhumed during successive shortening phases following continent-continent collisions within the Neo-Tethyan domain in central and east-central Anatolia. The Early to Middle Paleocene exhumation of the CAG is thought to be a consequence of the collision between the Tauride-Anatolide platform (TAP) and the Eurasian plate (EP) following the consumption of the Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan strand of the northern NeoTethys. The Oligocene exhumation documented by the data for the Kosedag pluton in east-central Anatolia is considered to be related to the compression due to continuing convergence between the EP and TAP which seems also to be synchronous with the collision between the amalgamated EP and TAP and the Afro-Arabian plate following the consumption of the southern Neo-Tethys along the Bitlis suture zone in southeast Anatolia. The punctuated tectonic exhumation of (circum)-CAG is correlated in space and time with the formation and infilling of the central Anatolian foreland basins. The formation and rapid infilling reflects fast erosion, balancing the uplift of basement rocks including the central Anatolian granitoids.