Bilelyeri Group, Antalya Complex: deposition on a Mesozoic passive continental margin, south‐west Turkey

ABSTRACT The Bilelyeri Group comprises complexly deformed Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of continental‐margin affinities (Kumluca Zone). These are structurally intercalated between a coeval carbonate platform to the west (Bey Daǧlari Zone) and late Triassic ophiolitic rocks and sediments, interpreted as emplaced marginal oceanic crust, to the east (Gödene Zone). Four formations erected in the Bilelyeri Group record the later stages of continental rifting and the progressive development of part of a Mesozoic passive continental margin. The two late Triassic formations, the Telektaş Tepe and the Hatipalani Formations, are dominated by terrigenous clastic and calcareous clastic sediments, including large detached blocks of reef limestone. These rocks were laid down by mostly mass‐flow and turbidity‐flow into steep‐sided rift depressions. Organic reefs were constructed in bordering shallow seas while terrigenous clastic sediment was shed from exposed basement horsts. Thick sequences of mafic lavas were extruded (Norian) in axial parts of the rift zones, followed by a regional change to deposition of pelagic Halobia ‐bearing limestone. This culminated in a major hiatus involving large‐scale sliding of shallow‐water limestones into deeper water. The Jurassic to early Cretaceous Dereköy Formation mostly consists of siltstones, radiolarian cherts and mudstones, intercalated with redeposited limestones and black shales. During this time parts of the margin were bordered by major offshore carbonate complexes constructed partly on basement fragments previously rifted off the parent continental areas. Black shales and reduced hemipelagic sediments were deposited in an elongate trough between the main platform and an offshore complex to the east. Some degree of margin reactivation in the early Cretaceous is indicated by renewed deposition of turbiditic sandstone and chloritic clays in some distal sequences. Strong relative enrichment of manganese in some horizons is attributed to offshore volcanic exhalations. Subsequent regional subsidence in the mid‐to late Cretaceous is suggested by a switch to predominantly calcareous, pelagic sedimentation on the adjacent platform and the offshore massifs as well as on the Bilelyeri margin. Tectonic disruption of the platform edge during the late Cretaceous is implied by major redeposition of shallow‐water shelf limestones in proximal Bilelyeri sequences. The Bilelyeri margin and the adjacent Gödene Zone were tectonically deformed in latest Cretaceous to early Tertiary time and were thrust over the adjacent Bey Daǧlari platform in the early Miocene. Viewed in an East Mediterranean perspective, the Bilelyeri sequences were part of a locally north‐south trending segment of a regionally east‐west margin to a substantial oceanic area further south. This segment apparently suffered significant strike‐slip deformation both during its construction and its later emplacement. Instructive comparisons can be made with other areas of the East Mediterranean, especially south‐west Cyprus.