Palaeotectonic evolution of the Tuzgölü basin complex, Central Turkey: sedimentary record of a Neo-Tethyan closure

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Abstract
Summary: The Tuzgölü basin complex represents a cluster of epi-sutural depressions nested on the Ankara Knot in central Anatolia, where several sutures converge. The basin complex consists mainly of two sub-basins, the Haymana and the Tuzgölü ( s.s. ) depressions. During the Late Cretaceous to the Late Palaeocene, the Tuzgölü and the Haymana sub-basins evolved coevally, but independently, as fore-arc basins along the active margins of the Sakarya Continent and the Kırşehir block. Turbidites accumulated in the basin interiors, with shallow marine and terrestrial deposition near the basin margins. Late Palaeocene-Early Eocene collision of the Menderes-Taurus block with the Sakarya Continent and the Kırşehir block along the Inner Tauride Sture, and the coeval collision of the Kırşehir block with the Rhodope-Pontide Fragment along the Erzincan suture juxtaposed and deformed the two sub-basins. Intra-continental convergence continued during the Early to Middle Eocene with further subsidence and turbidite deposition in both sub-basins. After the Middle Eocene, a single molasse basin was characterized by extensive redbeds and evaporites. Extensive salt deposits in the Tuzgölü sub-basin probably relate to marine regression in the later Eocene. The present Tuzgölü basin is part of neotectonic Turkey and constitutes one of the large central Anatolian ovas .