Southern Menderes Massif: an incipient metamorphic core complex in western Anatolia, Turkey

1994 ◽  
Vol 151 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. BOZKURT ◽  
L R.G. PARK
Geosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1846-1868
Author(s):  
Caroline Heineke ◽  
Ralf Hetzel ◽  
Nils-Peter Nilius ◽  
Christoph Glotzbach ◽  
Cüneyt Akal ◽  
...  

Abstract In extensional provinces with low-angle normal faulting (such as the Aegean region), both tectonic processes and erosion induce landscape change, but their interaction during the evolution of topography and relief accompanying continental extension has rarely been addressed. Here we present local and catchment-wide 10Be erosion rates that document the spatial pattern of erosion in the central Menderes Massif, a metamorphic core complex consisting of two asymmetric mountain ranges (Bozdağ and Aydın) bound by detachment faults and active grabens. Catchment-wide erosion rates on the northern flank of the Bozdağ Range are rather low (40–110 mm/k.y.) but reach values of >300 mm/k.y. on the steep southern escarpment—a pattern that reflects both topography and bedrock lithology. In the Aydın Range, erosion rates are generally higher, with mean erosion rates of ∼190 and ∼260 mm/k.y. on the northern and southern flank, respectively, and more variable along strike. In both ranges, erosion rates of ridge crests derived from amalgamated clasts are 30–90 mm/k.y. The difference between local and catchment-wide erosion rates indicates that topographic relief increases in most parts of the massif in response to ongoing fault-related uplift and concomitant river incision. Our findings document that tectonic processes exert a significant control on landscape evolution during active continental extension and are reflected in both the topographic signature and the spatial pattern of erosion. In the Menderes Massif, rock susceptibility to weathering and erosion is a dominant factor that controls the erosional contribution to rock exhumation, which varies spatially between ∼10% and ∼50%.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bora Uzel ◽  
Nuretdin Kaymakci ◽  
Elif Cakir ◽  
Levent Tosun ◽  
Murat Ozkaptan ◽  
...  

<p>The African-European convergent tectonic setting has resulted in a complex deformation history with several large-scale tectonic features in western Anatolia, where is dominated by a crustal-scale extension since the late Eocene. The Menderes metamorphic core complex, the İzmir-Balıkesir Transfer Zone, and the North Anatolian Fault Zone are some of these main tectonic features. To understand their spatio-temporal relationships we employ paleomagnetic, geochronologic and kinematic studies in the northernmost part of the western Anatolia, where these structures interacting with each other. </p><p>Our results show that western Anatolia has experienced at least two separate rotational phases since the Miocene. The first rotational phase is clockwise and related volcanism is dated as 21–16 Ma. The second rotational phase is counterclockwise and related volcanic rocks are dated as 14–12 Ma. According to collected kinematic data, pervasive transcurrent tectonism was dominated during the first phase, while the second one was dominated by extensional (and/or transtensional) tectonism. Here, the mode of extension switched from distributed diffuse deformation to discrete local deformation, possibly due to tearing and retreating of the northward subducting African oceanic slab below the western  Anatolian crust. This interrelated process also led to the localization of the İzmir-Balıkesir Transfer Zone with the decoupling of strike-slip faults, and to the episodic exhumation of the Menderes metamorphic core complex. This study is supported by a Tübitak Project, Grant Number of 117R011.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizard González-Becuar ◽  
Efrén Pérez-Segura ◽  
Ricardo Vega-Granillo ◽  
Luigi Solari ◽  
Carlos Manuel González-León ◽  
...  

Plutonic rocks of the Puerta del Sol area, in central Sonora, represent the extension to the south of the El Jaralito batholith, and are part of the footwall of the Sierra Mazatán metamorphic core complex, whose low-angle detachment fault bounds the outcrops of plutonic rocks to the west. Plutons in the area record the magmatic evolution of the Laramide arc and the Oligo-Miocene syn-extensional plutonism in Sonora. The basement of the area is composed by the ca. 1.68 Ga El Palofierral orthogneiss that is part of the Caborca block. The Laramide plutons include the El Gato diorite (71.29 ± 0.45 Ma, U-Pb), the El Pajarito granite (67.9 ± 0.43 Ma, U-Pb), and the Puerta del Sol granodiorite (49.1 ± 0.46 Ma, U-Pb). The younger El Oquimonis granite (41.78 ± 0.32 Ma, U-Pb) is considered part of the scarce magmatism that in Sonora records a transition to the Sierra Madre Occidental magmatic event. The syn-extensional plutons are the El Garambullo gabbro (19.83 ± 0.18 Ma, U-Pb) and the Las Mayitas granodiorite (19.2 ± 1.2 Ma, K-Ar). A migmatitic event that affected the El Palofierral orthogneiss, El Gato diorite, and El Pajarito granite between ca. 68 and 59 Ma might be related to the emplacement of the El Pajarito granite. The plutons are metaluminous to slightly peraluminous, with the exception of El Oquimonis granite, which is a peraluminous two-mica, garnet-bearing granite. They are mostly high-K calc-alkaline with nearly uniform chondrite-normalized REE and primitive-mantle normalized multielemental patterns that are characteristic of continental margin arcs and resemble patterns reported for other Laramide granites of Sonora. The Laramide and syn-extensional plutons also have Sr, Nd and Pb isotopic ratios that plot within the fields reported for Laramide granites emplaced in the Caborca terrane in northwestern and central Sonora. Nevertheless, and despite their geochemical affinity to continental magmatic arcs, the El Garambullo gabbro and Las Mayitas granodiorite are syn-extensional plutons that were emplaced at ca. 20 Ma during development of the Sierra Mazatán metamorphic core complex. The 40Ar/39Ar and K-Ar ages obtained for the El Palofierral orthogneiss, the Puerta del Sol granodiorite, the El Oquimonis granite, and the El Garambullo gabbro range from 26.3 ± 0.6 to 17.4 ± 1.0 Ma and are considered cooling ages associated with the exhumation of the metamorphic core complex.


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