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Far-field tectonic effects of the Arabia–Eurasia collision and the inception of the North Anatolian Fault system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2013

IRENE ALBINO ,
WILLIAM CAVAZZA ,
MASSIMILIANO ZATTIN ,
ARAL I. OKAY ,
SHOTA ADAMIA  and
NINO SADRADZE
IRENE ALBINO
Affiliation:
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Piazza di Porta San Donato 1, 40126 Bologna, Italy
WILLIAM CAVAZZA*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Piazza di Porta San Donato 1, 40126 Bologna, Italy
MASSIMILIANO ZATTIN
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Padua, Via Gradenigo 6, 35131 Padua, Italy
ARAL I. OKAY
Affiliation:
Istanbul Technical University, Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Maslak 34469, Istanbul, Turkey
SHOTA ADAMIA
Affiliation:
Institute of Geophysics, 1 M. Alexidze str., 0193 Tbilisi, Georgia
NINO SADRADZE
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, 1/9 M. Alexidze str., 0193 Tbilisi, Georgia
*
†Author for correspondence: william.cavazza@unibo.it
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Abstract

New thermochronological data show that rapid Middle Miocene exhumation occurred synchronously along the Bitlis suture zone and in the southeastern Black Sea region, arguably as a far-field effect of the Arabia–Eurasia indentation. Collision-related strain focused preferentially along the rheological boundary between the multideformed continental lithosphere of northeastern Anatolia and the strong (quasi)oceanic lithosphere of the eastern Black Sea. Deformation in the southeastern Black Sea region ceased in late Middle Miocene time, when coherent westward motion of Anatolia and the corresponding activation of the North and East Anatolian Fault systems mechanically decoupled portions of the foreland from the Arabia–Eurasia collision zone.

Keywords

fission-track analysislow-temperature thermochronologystress transferexhumation

Information

Type
Rapid Communication
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 151 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 372 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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