Abstract:
Anatolia, Turkey contains many interior basins located between the Pontide Mountains to the north and Tauride Mountains to the south. The largest of these basins is the Tuzgölü Basin, which has been the focus of many field-oriented geological studies since the 1970s. Although the surface geology of the basin is well established, its subsurface geology remains unstudied. The study area contains the central part of the Tuzgölü Fault Zone, which controls the tectonics and sedimentation along the eastern margin of the Tuzgölü Basin. Ten seismic reflection profiles were depth converted using sonic log data from five wells in order to construct structural cross-sections. From these data, I have determined the structural evolution of the central Tuzgölü Basin based on structural interpretation of ten available seismic reflection profiles. Results show that the Tuzgölü Basin has experienced a rift type extension beginning in Late Cretaceous time, as evidenced by the presence of conglomeratic red colored terrestrial Kartal Formation adjacent to the normal faults that controlled sedimentation. The Kartal Formation grades into the shallow marine carbonate units of the Asmabogazi and Caldag formations, which were dated as Maastrichtian and Paleocene in age, respectively. Extension stopped in Late Paleocene time. In Eocene time, the basin was influenced by north-south contraction during the formation of Izmir-Ankara suture zone. The contraction formed several regional thrust faults of the suture zone. The Eocene Yassipur and Paleocene-Eocene Karapinaryaylasi formations are unconformably overlain by the Oligo-Miocene Kochisar Formation and Pliocene Cihanbeyli Formation in Early Pliocene time, the westward escape of the Anatolian plate caused the formation of new extensional structures. Neotectonic extension created normal faults, which controlled the deposition of the Oligo-Miocene Kochisar Formation and Pliocene Cihanbeyli Formation.
