Premium
High‐pressure metasediments in central Turkey: Constraints on the Neotethyan closure history
Author(s) -
Pourteau A.,
Candan O.,
Oberhänsli R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
tectonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.465
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1944-9194
pISSN - 0278-7407
DOI - 10.1029/2009tc002650
Subject(s) - geology , metamorphism , ophiolite , greenschist , metamorphic rock , fibrous joint , paleontology , obduction , metamorphic facies , pillow lava , metamorphic core complex , subduction , continental margin , geochemistry , tectonics , facies , oceanic crust , volcanic rock , structural basin , medicine , anatomy , volcano , extensional definition
The distribution of oceanic domains and continental blocks in Central Anatolia remains a challenge in understanding the Alpine geodynamic evolution of the Tethys realm. The consumption of a Neotethys oceanic branch at the Mesozoic‐Cenozoic boundary welded the Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex in central Turkey and the Anatolide‐Tauride Block in western Turkey, with the northerly Eurasian margin. Whether those two regions constituted a single or two distinct continental masses is still matter of debate. High‐pressure metamorphism has been locally evidenced in the Afyon Zone, which was, however, defined as a greenschist‐facies metamorphic zone of the Anatolide‐Tauride Block. Since the Afyon Zone composes a metamorphic equivalent of a continental margin exposed far south of the Izmir‐Ankara suture zone, this encouraged us to reevaluate its metamorphic evolution in order to better understand the relation between western and central Turkey. Our investigations reveal that the high‐pressure minerals Fe‐Mg‐carpholite and glaucophane are present in the entire Afyon Zone, which we reconsider as a blueschist‐facies zone. We additionally present a tectonic reconstruction, stripping off the postcollisional tectonics. It reveals that today's bending of the high‐pressure belt is consistent with an Eocene collision of the Anatolide‐Tauride Block around the southern edge of the Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex. We argue that the Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex and the Anatolide‐Tauride Block were two distinct continental masses separated by a Neotethyan oceanic stripe, the closure of which engendered subduction‐related metamorphism in the latter and arc volcanism and high‐grade metamorphism in the former by late Cretaceous to early Cenozoic.