The Beysehir-Hoyran-Hadim Nappes: genesis and emplacement of Mesozoic marginal and oceanic units of the northern Neotethys in southern Turkey

Abstract

The Beysehir-Hoyran-Hadim Nappes crop out over 700 km from NW to SE. Above a regionally autochthonous Tauride carbonate platform the Beysehir-Hoyran Nappes begin with a thrust sheet (c. 400 m) of mainly redeposited carbonates, quartzose sandstones and mudstones of Mid-Late Triassic age, interpreted as a proximal slope-base-of-slope succession. Above is a thrust sheet (c. 1 km) of Middle-Upper Triassic intermediate-acidic extrusive rocks, volcaniclastic rocks and minor pelagic carbonates, interpreted as a continental rift. Thin (,100 m) Upper Triassic-Upper Cretaceous pelagic carbonate and radiolarian chert lie depositionally above. The uppermost thrust sheet comprises broken formation and melange, including Jurassic shallow-water carbonate, radiolarian chert and Upper Cretaceous pelagic limestone. Zones of tectonic- sedimentary melange separate higher units. The Beysehir-Hoyran Nappes document Triassic rifting and Jurassic-Cretaceous passive margin subsidence bordering the Northern Neotethys. A harzburgitic ophiolite probably formed above a north-dipping subduction zone within the ocean basin. The ophiolite was emplaced southwards onto the northern margin of the Tauride platform in latest Cretaceous time. The nappe pile and underlying platform (Hadim Nappe) were thrust further south in Late Eocene time. Assuming in-sequence thrusting, the Beysehir-Hoyran Nappes restore to a location north of a Neotethyan spreading axis. More probably, they originated near the south margin of the Northern Neotethys, but reached their position by outof- sequence thrusting. Formation within a southerly strand of the Northern Neotethys (Inner Tauride ocean) is more probable than within the main Northern Neotethys further north.