Geological Society of America

T168 Initiation and Evolution of Arc-Forearc Systems in Cascadia and Beyond

Tuesday, 12 October 2021
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Portland Ballroom 257 (Hybrid Room)

FOREARC AND FORELAND BASIN EVIDENCE FOR PROTRACTED LATE CRETACEOUS-EOCENE COLLISION IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

Paper number: T168-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:50 PM – 2:05 PM

Authors

Megan Mueller Presenting Author
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Samuel Shekut
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Pauline Coster
Apt
Michael Taylor
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Alexis Licht
CNRS, Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement de Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), Aix-en-Provence
Clay Campbell
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Faruk Ocakoglu
Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir
K. Christopher Beard
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Andreas Möller
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Gui Aksit
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Gregoire Metais
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Kyle Lowery
Seattle, WA

Abstract

Across the Alpine-Himalayan orogeny, the timing of intercontinental collision is difficult to determine and often disputed by ~15 to 40 Myr. This has led to a variety of contradictory paleogeographic and geodynamic reconstructions. In Anatolia, the closure of the Neotethys Ocean and collision along the >1,700 km long Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zone has been proposed to occur sometime from the Late Cretaceous through Eocene. Forearc-to-foreland basins across northern Anatolia preserve a near-continuous depositional record during subduction and collision, and therefore offer unparalleled insight into the evolution of continental collisions. Here we present sedimentary provenance results from Late Cretaceous through Eocene strata in the forearc-foreland basins of western Anatolia. We compare these results to published data from across Anatolia to evaluate the regional response to intercontinental collision. The appearance of lower plate detritus, ophiolitic material and sediment recycling in the forearc preceded thick-skinned deformation and molasse deposition by ~20 Myr, demonstrating a protracted collisional evolution. We synthesize these results into a new scenario for Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan suturing by proposing several geodynamic mechanisms to explain multi-phase intercontinental collision.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 53, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-369737

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