Tectonic implications of the Neogene stratigraphy of the Çankiri basin with special reference to the Çandir locality (North-Central Anatolia, Turkey)

Abstract

The Çankiri Basin is straddled between the Sakarya continent of the Pontides in the north and the Kirşehir Block of Taurides. It includes Neogene units more than 1 km in thickness. Eight Neogene formations and two distinct tectonic regimes are identified. The formations were dated using rodent fossils. They were mapped by remote-sensing techniques and their depositional environments and tectonic settings were established by field studies. The early and middle Miocene sediments were deposited in an extensional tectonic regime, which replaced the pre-Neogene thrust regime. The late Miocene to Pliocene age sediments were deposited in a compressional tectonic regime which gradually changed its character to regional transcurrent tectonics which has been operating in much of Turkey ever since.