Tectonic evolution and paleogeography of the Kırşehir Block and the Central Anatolian Ophiolites, Turkey

In Central and Western Anatolia two continent-derived massifs simultaneously underthrusted an oceanic lithosphere in the Cretaceous and ended up with very contrasting metamorphic grades: high pressure, low temperature in the Tavsanli zone and the low pressure, high temperature in the Kirsehir Block. To assess why, we reconstruct the Cretaceous paleogeography and plate configuration of Central Anatolia using structural, metamorphic, and geochronological constraints and Africa-Europe plate reconstructions. We review and provide new Ar-40/Ar-39 and U/Pb ages from Central Anatolian metamorphic and magmatic rocks and ophiolites and show new paleomagnetic data on the paleo-ridge orientation in a Central Anatolian Ophiolite. Intraoceanic subduction that formed within the Neotethys around 100-90 Ma along connected N-S and E-W striking segments was followed by overriding oceanic plate extension. Already during suprasubduction zone ocean spreading, continental subduction started. We show that the complex geology of central and southern Turkey can at first order be explained by a foreland-propagating thrusting of upper crustal nappes derived from a downgoing, dominantly continental lithosphere: the Kirsehir Block and Tavsanli zone accreted around 85 Ma, the Afyon zone around 65 Ma, and Taurides accretion continued until after the middle Eocene. We find no argument for Late Cretaceous subduction initiation within a conceptual "Inner Tauride Ocean" between the Kirsehir Block and the Afyon zone as widely inferred. We propose that the major contrast in metamorphic grade between the Kirsehir Block and the Tavsanli zone primarily results from a major contrast in subduction obliquity and the associated burial rates, higher temperature being reached upon higher subduction obliquity.European Research Council ; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO

Earthquake rupture propagation inferred from the spatial distribution of fault rock frictional properties

The frictional properties of fault rocks that rupture during earthquakes are expected to affect the nucleation and propagation of seismic slip, but these properties and their variation under in-situ earthquake conditions are typically unknown. Here, we present experimental results on the variation of frictional properties of fault rocks from the Alhama de Murcia Fault (AMF) in SE Spain, which ruptured in the 2011 Lorca earthquake. In the epicentral area, the fault zone is characterized by the presence of abundant phyllosilicate-rich gouges that surround more competent, fractured lenses of the phyllitic basement. Measurements of lineaments and orientations of R-shears in the gouges are consistent with CMT-solutions of the 2011 Lorca earthquake, suggesting that the bulk of displacement on the AMF was accommodated within similar gouges at depth. In order to evaluate the frictional properties of the fault rocks of the AMF, we performed rotary shear experiments under hydrothermal conditions of samples obtained from surface outcrops of the AMF zone, progressively simulating deeper levels in the crust by stepping temperature, effective normal stress and fluid pressure. A negative velocity-dependence of friction, expressed as a negative value of the Rate-and-State Friction (RSF) parameter (a - b) and which is a prerequisite for the nucleation of an instability, was observed only for samples derived from competent lenses under hydrothermal conditions. Gouge-derived samples exhibited only velocity-strengthening properties, i.e. positive values of (a - b), which increase with deeper conditions, in particular with increasing effective normal stress. Combined with our outcrop observation of the anastomosing nature of gouges surrounding more competent lenses of fractured protolith, our results suggest that the 2011 Lorca earthquake nucleated in the competent lenses, followed by propagation of slip into the frictionally weaker gouges. The inferred upward propagation direction of the 2011 Lorca earthquake is consistent with propagation of the rupture into the velocity-strengthening gouges which at shallower levels provide a smaller barrier to seismic slip due to lower values of effective normal stress and (a - b). Our results suggest that the spatial variation of the frictional properties along the AMF was an important factor controlling the nucleation and propagation of seismic slip which, together with the shallow hypocenter close to the city of Lorca, led to serious damage. We infer that understanding of such variations in frictional properties may significantly improve seismic hazard evaluations in tectonically active regions

Tectonic and magmatic evolution of the mantle lithosphere during the rifting stages of a fossil slow-ultraslow spreading basin : Insights from the Erro-Tobbio peridotite (Voltri Massif, NW Italy)

We investigate the structural, petrological and compositional features recorded by strongly deformed and melt-percolated Erro-Tobbio peridotites (Voltri Massif, Ligurian Alps, NW Italy), in order to demonstrate that the processes of shear-zone formation and melt percolation are intimately linked by a positive feedback. We focus on spinel and plagioclase peridotites, and extensional shear zones that underwent infiltration by upwelling asthenospheric melts. Shear and porosity bands, which developed during extension prior to melt infiltration, represent important structural and rheological pathways to facilitate and enhance melt infiltration into the extending lithosphere and the ascent of such melts to shallower levels.Our results lend strong support to numerical models addressing the physical processes underlying extensional systems. These show that, in the case of slow-ultraslow continental extension and the subsequent formation of slow-ultraslow spreading oceans, porosity and shear-localization bands may develop in a previously unstructured lithosphere, prior to melt infiltration. Our studies on the Erro-Tobbio peridotites allow a model for the inception of continental extension and rifting to drifting of slow-ultraslow spreading oceans to be proposed. We suggest that integrated studies of on-land peridotites, coupled with geophysical-structural results from modern oceans, may provide clues to the geodynamic processes governing continental extension and passive rifting

Middle Jurassic shear zones at Cap de Creus (eastern Pyrenees, Spain) : a record of pre-drift extension of the Piemonte–Ligurian Ocean?

The Cap de Creus peninsula in NE Spain consists of greenschist- to amphibolite-facies metasediments and granitoid bodies of the Variscan Axial Zone of the Pyrenees, overprinted in the north by anastomosed greenschist-facies shear zones. Current tectonic interpretations ascribe these shear zones to the waning stages of the Variscan orogeny. We present muscovite 40Ar/39Ar data from the shear zones, yielding Middle Jurassic ages between 159.33 ± 0.43 and 175.18 ± 1.10 Ma and one Tertiary age of 58.57 ± 0.55 Ma. We suggest that the present-day structure at Cap de Creus resulted from Variscan deformation and HT–LP metamorphism, followed during the Jurassic by crustal stretching and development of ductile normal faults reflecting pre-drift continental extension related to opening of the Piemonte–Ligurian basin east of Iberia. Tilting during Alpine convergence caused steepening in the northern part of the penisula, with the ductile normal faults rotated to their present orientations appearing as dextral reverse shear zones. The shear zone yielding a Tertiary age could reflect either an Alpine structure or reactivation of an earlier, presumably Jurassic shear zone. The Cap de Creus structure may thus represent a continental margin that has undergone ductile stretching equivalent to the now-buried west Iberian or Newfoundland margin

A Miocene onset of the modern extensional regime in the Isparta Angle : constraints from the Yalvaç Basin (southwest Turkey)

The pre-Neogene Tauride fold-and-thrust belt, comprising Cretaceous ophiolites and metamorphic rocks and non-metamorphic carbonate thrust slices in southern Turkey, is flanked and overlain by Neogene sedimentary basins. These include poorly studied intra-montane basins including the Yalvaç Basin. In this paper, we study the stratigraphy, sedimentology and structure of the Yalvaç Basin, which has a Middle Miocene and younger stratigraphy. Our results show that the basin formed as a result of multi-directional extension, with NE–SW to E–W extension dominating over subordinate NW–SE to N–S extension. We show that faults bounding the modern basin also governed basin formation, with proximal facies close to the basin margins grading upwards and basinwards into lacustrine deposits representing the local depocentre. The Yalvac Basin was a local basin, but a similar, contemporaneous history recently reconstructed from the Altınapa Basin, ~100 km to the south, shows that multi-directional extension dominated by E–W extension was a regional phenomenon. Extension is still active today, and we conclude that this tectonic regime in the study area has prevailed since Middle Miocene times. Previously documented E–W shortening in the Isparta Angle along the Aksu Thrust, ~100 km to the southwest of our study area, is synchronous with the extensional history documented here, and E–W extension to its east shows that Anatolian westwards push is likely not the cause. Synchronous E–W shortening in the heart and E–W extension in the east of the Isparta Angle may be explained by an eastwards-dipping subduction zone previously documented with seismic tomography and earthquake hypocentres. We suggest that this slab surfaces along the Aksu thrust and creates E–W overriding plate extension in the east of the Isparta Angle. Neogene and modern Anatolian geodynamics may thus have been driven by an Aegean, Antalya and Cyprus slab segment that each had their own specific evolution

Late Cretaceous extension and Palaeogene rotation-related contraction in Central Anatolia recorded in the Ayhan-Büyükkışla basin

The configuration and evolution of subduction zones in the Eastern Mediterranean region in Cretaceous time accommodating Africa–Europe convergence remain poorly quantitatively reconstructed, owing to a lack of kinematic constraints. A recent palaeomagnetic study suggested that the triangular Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex (CACC) consists of three blocks that once formed an ~N–S elongated continental body, underthrusted below ophiolites in Late Cretaceous time. After extensional exhumation and upon Palaeogene collision of the CACC with the Pontides of the southern Eurasian margin, the CACC broke into three fragments that rotated and converged relative to each other. Here, we date the extension and contraction history of the boundary between two of the rotating massifs of the CACC by studying the Upper Cretaceous–Palaeogene Ayhan–Büyükkışla basin. We report an 40Ar/39Ar age of an andesite at the base of the sequence to show that the deposition started in an E–W extensional basin around 72.11 ± 1.46. The basin developed contemporaneously with regional exhumation of the CACC metamorphics. The lower basin sedimentary rocks were unconformably covered by mid-Eocene limestones and redbeds, followed by intense folding and thrust faulting. Two balanced cross-sections in the study area yield a minimum of 17–27 km of post-mid-Eocene ~N–S shortening. We thus demonstrate the Cenozoic compressional nature of the Kırşehir–Niğde-Hırkadağ block boundary and show that the extensional exhumation of the CACC predates collision-related contraction. A plate kinematic scenario is required to explain these observations that involves two Late Cretaceous–Palaeogene subduction zones to the north and south of the CACC, for which we show a possible plate boundary configuration

Tectonic and magmatic evolution of the mantle lithosphere during the rifting stages of a fossil slow-ultraslow spreading basin: Insights from the Erro-Tobbio peridotite (Voltri Massif, NW Italy)

We investigate the structural, petrological and compositional features recorded by strongly deformed and melt-percolated Erro-Tobbio peridotites (Voltri Massif, Ligurian Alps, NW Italy), in order to demonstrate that the processes of shear-zone formation and melt percolation are intimately linked by a positive feedback. We focus on spinel and plagioclase peridotites, and extensional shear zones that underwent infiltration by upwelling asthenospheric melts. Shear and porosity bands, which developed during extension prior to melt infiltration, represent important structural and rheological pathways to facilitate and enhance melt infiltration into the extending lithosphere and the ascent of such melts to shallower levels.Our results lend strong support to numerical models addressing the physical processes underlying extensional systems. These show that, in the case of slow-ultraslow continental extension and the subsequent formation of slow-ultraslow spreading oceans, porosity and shear-localization bands may develop in a previously unstructured lithosphere, prior to melt infiltration. Our studies on the Erro-Tobbio peridotites allow a model for the inception of continental extension and rifting to drifting of slow-ultraslow spreading oceans to be proposed. We suggest that integrated studies of on-land peridotites, coupled with geophysical-structural results from modern oceans, may provide clues to the geodynamic processes governing continental extension and passive rifting

Late Cretaceous extension and Palaeogene rotation-related contraction in Central Anatolia recorded in the Ayhan-Buyukkisla basin

The configuration and evolution of subduction zones in the Eastern Mediterranean region in Cretaceous time accommodating Africa-Europe convergence remain poorly quantitatively reconstructed, owing to a lack of kinematic constraints. A recent palaeomagnetic study suggested that the triangular Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex (CACC) consists of three blocks that once formed an similar to N-S elongated continental body, underthrusted below ophiolites in Late Cretaceous time. After extensional exhumation and upon Palaeogene collision of the CACC with the Pontides of the southern Eurasian margin, the CACC broke into three fragments that rotated and converged relative to each other. Here, we date the extension and contraction history of the boundary between two of the rotating massifs of the CACC by studying the Upper Cretaceous-Palaeogene Ayhan-Buyukkisla basin. We report an Ar-40/Ar-39 age of an andesite at the base of the sequence to show that the deposition started in an E-W extensional basin around 72.11 +/- 1.46. The basin developed contemporaneously with regional exhumation of the CACC metamorphics. The lower basin sedimentary rocks were unconformably covered by mid-Eocene limestones and redbeds, followed by intense folding and thrust faulting. Two balanced cross-sections in the study area yield a minimum of 17-27km of post-mid-Eocene similar to N-S shortening. We thus demonstrate the Cenozoic compressional nature of the Kirsehir-Nigde-Hirkadag block boundary and show that the extensional exhumation of the CACC predates collision-related contraction. A plate kinematic scenario is required to explain these observations that involves two Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene subduction zones to the north and south of the CACC, for which we show a possible plate boundary configuration