Preparing the ground for plateau growth: Central Anatolian uplift in the context of Tauride and Cypriot orogenesis

Abstract

Turkey contains a high, flat region known as the Central Anatolian Plateau, which formed in multiple phases over the past 8 million years. This high plateau formed in the upper plate of a subduction zone, above the subducting African plate. There has been great scientific interest in kilometre-scale rise of this plateau as an ideal place to study the interplay between subduction dynamics and surface uplift. The precise cause of uplift however, is hotly debated, and forms part of a wider debate in earth sciences: what drives the formation of high topography? The southern mountainous margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau is known as the Tauride Mountains. This mountain belt may contain a long-term geological record of subduction below Central Anatolia. In this thesis, I aim to use this record to establish the initial geodynamic conditions of plateau rise. To do this, I reconstruct the kinematic evolution of the Taurides fold-thrust belt and surrounding regions using balanced cross sections, fault kinematic observations, paleomagnetic data, and plate reconstructions. In addition, I use low-temperature thermochronology to constrain the surface evolution that followed the formation of the Taurides. I constrain the orogenic and topographic evolution of the plateau crust for the past ~100 million years, and define the subduction configuration at the onset of plateau rise. Previous models that aimed to explain plateau rise lacked these constraints, and therefore assumed initial geodynamic conditions that were inconsistent with the modern architecture and long-term evolution of Turkey. I conclude that the rise of the Central Anatolian Plateau occurred as a result of the interplay of four processes, on different temporal and spatial scales: 1) Local, slow crustal delamination in the western Central Taurides; 2) Previously proposed ‘drip-delamination’ in Central Anatolia; 3) Break-off of the African slab below southern Turkey; 4) Collision of the African continental margin in the southern Taurides and Cyprus.