Geological history of the northward arched segment of the North Anatolian Transform Fault Zone

The study area is located in the southern part of the Central Pontides. The rocks exposed in this region have been divided into three major groups: basement, cover sequence and volcanic rocks. The basement rocks are composed of metamorphic units and a chaotic assemblage derived from an accretionary prism produced during the northward subduction of northern Neo‐Tethys during the Late Cretaceous. During the same period, the basal element of the cover sequence, a thick and coarsening upward flysch succession (Cankurtaran Formation) was deposited in a tectonically active forearc regime. Towards the end of the Early Palaeocene, the entire study area emerged and became the site of erosion. During the Late Palaeocene to Early Eocene, the northern and southern parts of the study area were invaded by a new transgressing sea. This period was followed by uplift, volcanic activity and the formation of regressive sequences, events resulting from continental collision between the Anatolian and Pontide blocks during Late Eocene to Early Miocene times. Continuing convergence between the Anatolian and Pontide blocks resulted in conversion of the compressional‐contractional regime into a compressional‐extensional regime and the inception of the North Anatolian strike‐slip system during the Late Miocene‐Early Pliocene period.