Karaoğlan F. (Executive), Topak Y.
TUBITAK Project, 2018 - 2020
The Southeast Anatolian Orogenic Belt is formed by three major tectonic units namely Nappe Zone, accretionary prism zone, and the Arabian plate. The Arabian Platform, which was played as a passive margin during the late Cretaceous to the recent closure of the South branch of the Neotethyan Ocean, comprises sedimentary successions ranging from Precambrian to recent. The debate on the timing of the collision between Anatolide-Tauride platform, Bitlis-Pütürge metamorphics and the Arabian platform is still continuing. The data gathered in this study show that the late Cretaceous formations did not fed by active margin units and the Terbüzek formation had a homogenous source of late Cretaceous (88 Ma). The apatite Fission Track data indicate that the late Cretacous units buried between 2 and 4 km depth and exhumed during Oligocene, at the latest. The Miocene Şelmo formation sourced by the units exhumed during late Oligocene within the active margin. These data indicate that the continental collision initiated during early Oligocene, at the latest.