Middle-Upper Miocene paleogeography of southern Turkey: Insights from stratigraphy and calcareous nannofossil biochronology of the Olukpınar and Başyayla sections (Mut-Ermenek Basin)

Abstract

The age of the marine succession capping the basement rocks of the central Taurides in the Mut-Ermenek Basin is constrained using calcareous nannofossil biochronology. The Olukpinar section, which correlates with the biozones between MNN5a and MNN6b (late Langhian-late Serravallian), represents a deeper marine environment developed lateral to the Ermenek platform. The long-term transgressive-regressive cycle of the Olukpinar section, which corresponds to the middle-upper part of the TB2 supercycle, can be subdivided into 2 large-scale (106 years) cycles (TB2.4 and TB2.5) based on the occurrence of 2 major debris flow deposits linked to sea-level drop. The younger late Tortonian Başyayla section represents a transgressive-regressive sedimentary cycle (TB3.2 cycle) responsible for the major transgressive event that occurred at the southern margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau during the Late Miocene. This major transgressive event is responsible for the migration of the coastal onlap of the Mediterranean Sea towards the interior of the Anatolian Peninsula, almost 100 km inland from the present Eastern Mediterranean coast line. The ~8 Ma age of the younger marine sediments deposited during the TB3.2 cycle, which onlap the basement rocks of the central Taurides at an elevation of ~2 km, represents a maximum age for the start of surface uplift of the Central Anatolian Plateau's southern margin. © TÜBITAK.