Late Cretaceous To Recent Kinematic History of the Tuzgölü Basin, Central Anatolia, Turkey: a Paleostress Study

Abstract

Traces of deformation events related to the Neotethyan and post-Neotethyan evolution of the Central Anatolia is well recorded in Upper Cretaceous to recent deposits of the Tuzgölü basin. In this regard, kinematic traces with age controls are crucial for differentiating and characterizing deformation phases that prevailed in the region. This study presents 57 paleostress inverse analysis based on more than 500 fault slip measurements collected from 41 different locations in the basin. The temporal distribution of the data sets indicates three different phases of deformation. The first one is represented by an almost E-Wdirected compressional setting, which might be related to the late-stage closure of the Neo Tethys Ocean and continental collision events along the Intra-Tauride Suture Zone during late Cretaceous to Oligocene time interval. The second phase is attributed to the segmentation of the Kırşehir block under NNW-SSE-directed compressional setting in the basin after the indentation of the Kırşehir block into the Pontide block along the İzmir Ankara-Erzincan Suture Zone. The last phase is represented by the transtensional regime, which might be related to uplift of the entire Central Anatolian Plateau since ~ 10 Ma. © 2020, Hacettepe Universitesi Yerbilmleri. All rights reserved.