Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences Geological Correlation Between Northern Cyprus And Southern Anatolia Journal: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences Manuscript ID cjes-2020-0129.R3 Manuscript Type: Article Date Submitted by the 15-Jan-2021 Author: Complete List of Authors: Yilmaz, Yucel; Istanbul Teknik Universitesi, Geological Engineering Keyword: Geology, Cyprus, SE Anatolia, Correlation, Tectonics Is the invited manuscript for consideration in a Special Not applicableDraft (regular submission) Issue? : © The Author(s) or their Institution(s) Page 1 of 53 Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 1 Geological Correlation Between Northern Cyprus And Southern Anatolia 2 Yücel Yılmaz 3 Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Mines, Department of Geological Engineering 4 Sariyer, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey 5 [email protected] 6 7 Abstract 8 The island of Cyprus constitutes a fragment of southern Anatolia separated from the mainland 9 by left-oblique transtension in late Cenozoic time. However, a geological framework of offset 10 features of the south-central Anatolia, for comparison of Cyprus with a source region within 11 and west of the southeastern Anatolian Draftsuture zone, has not yet been developed. In this paper, 12 I enumerate, describe, and compare a full suite of potentially correlative spatial and temporal 13 elements exposed in both regions. Northern Cyprus and south-central Anatolia have identical 14 tectonostratigraphic units. At the base of both belts, crop out ophiolitic mélange-accretionary 15 complex generated during the northward subduction of the NeoTethyan Oceanic lithosphere 16 from the Late Cretaceous until the end of middle Eocene. The nappes of the Taurus carbonate 17 platform were thrust above this internally chaotic unit during late Eocene. They began to move 18 as a coherent nappe pile from that time onward. An asymmetrical flysch basin was formed in 19 front of this southward moving nappe pile during the early Miocene. The nappes were then 20 thrust over the flysch basin fill and caused its tight folding. Cyprus separated from Anatolia in 21 the Pleistocene-Holocene when, transtensional oblique faults with dip-slip components caused 22 the development of the Adana and Iskenderun basins and the separation of Cyprus from 23 Anatolia. 24 Keywords; Geology, Cyprus, SE Anatolia, Correlation, Tectonics. 25 26 1. Introduction 1 © The Author(s) or their Institution(s) Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences Page 2 of 53 27 Over the last century and a half, several studies have focused on general or specific geological 28 aspects of Cyprus (Gaudry, 1862; Russel, 1882; Reed, 1929; Henson et al., 1949; Wilson, 1959). 29 Likewise, a few detailed works exist on the south-central Anatolia (Kozlu, 1987; Yılmaz and 30 Gürer, 1996; Robertson et al., 2004; Ünlügenç and Akıncı, 2017). Cyprus is relatively close to 31 Anatolia (Fig. 1A), with both regions having formed as parts of the southeastern branch of the 32 NeoTethyan Ocean (Şengör and Yılmaz, 1981; Yılmaz, 2019; Robertson et al., 2012 a; Dilek and 33 Furnes, 2019). However, there are hardly any comparative studies (Ketin, 1988). Therefore, this 34 paper aims to summarize the geology of the south-central Anatolia and the northern Cyprus and 35 provide insight how these regions correlate. To do this, a few critical places are selected from the 36 western termination of the Southeast Anatolian Orogenic Belt (SAOB) (Fig. 1A). 37 The data and interpretations presented should form a platform for future studies to test the proposed 38 tectonic models (Şengör and Yılmaz, 1981; Dercourt et al., 1986; Dilek et al., 1990; Ben Abraham 39 et al., 1995; Robertson, 2000; Aksu et al., 2005a; Dilek, 2006; Özeren and Holt, 2010; Le Pichon 40 and Kramer, 2010; Harrison et al., 2012;Draft Robertson et al., 2012A; Schildgen et al., 2012; Maffione 41 et al., 2017; McPhee and van Hinsbergen, 2019). The geology of Cyprus is reviewed first to form 42 a base for comparison with the south-central Anatolia. 43 44 2. Review of the Major Morphotectonic Belts Extending Between Cyprus and the South- 45 Central Anatolian Regions 46 The physiographic and geological maps and the accompanying cross-section in Figs.1B, 2A, 2B 47 show the major tectonic belts of Cyprus and its surroundings. From south to north, these are the 48 Eratosthenes Seamount, the Cyprus Trench, the Mammonia Region (complex), the Troodos 49 Ophiolite, the Mesaria Basin, the Kyrenia (Beşparmak) Range, and the Adana Basin. The Taurus 50 Mountains bound the Mediterranean Sea in the north (Figs. 1B and 2B). 51 The tectonic belts of Cyprus extend under the Mediterranean Sea toward the southern Anatolia. 52 Fig.1B displays their connections; the Cyprus Trench aligns eastward to the south boundary fault 53 of the Latakia subsea ridge and extends farther east as a strike-slip fault zone in the Latakia- 54 Antakya region. The Troodos Ophiolite extends through the Larnaca subsea ridge to the Kızıldağ 55 Ophiolite (KZO in Fig. 1B) in the Amanos Range. The Mesaria Basin (Figs. 1B and 2A, B) extends 2 © The Author(s) or their Institution(s) Page 3 of 53 Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 toward the İskenderun Basin. The height of the Kyrenia Range in northern Cyprus decreases to the 57 east, where a submerged ridge (MR in Fig. 1B) links the Kyrenia Range with the Misis-Andırın 58 Range in the south-central Anatolia. A major NNE trending strike-slip fault cuts their connections 59 (KMAF in Fig. 1B). The fault forms the eastern subsea boundary of the Kyrenia-Misis bathymetric 60 ridge and divides the Eastern Mediterranean into the Iskenderun Basin and the Adana Basin (Fig. 61 1B). 62 The region, along with the southwestern extension of the SAOB displays a complex history of 63 deformation (Yılmaz and Gürer, 1996; Gürsoy et al., 2003; Robertson et al., 2004; Aksu et al., 64 2005 a; Calon et al., 2005; Yılmaz, 2017; Yılmaz, 2020). Seismic activity along these fault zones 65 is frequent and severe (Azak and Tekin, 2015). Cyprus is moving away from Anatolia under the 66 combined effects of a set of sub-parallel strike-slip and normal faults (Fig. 1B) (Gürsoy et al., 67 2003; Aksu et al., 2005 a, b, c; Yılmaz, 2020). 68 Draft 69 3. Geological Summary of Cyprus 70 According to the previous studies, the Kyrenia Range displays a more complete stratigraphic 71 sequence of Cyprus than the other areas of the island (Fig. 3). For this reason, the description of 72 Cyprus geology starts from the Kyrenia Range, which is also the major focus of this paper because 73 it shows a direct subsea connection with southern Anatolia. Other regions of Cyprus are described 74 briefly to evaluate their relationship with the Kyrenia Range. 75 76 3.1. The Kyrenia Range (The Beşparmak Dağları) 77 The Kyrenia Range is the northernmost major morphotectonic belt of Cyprus, on which there are 78 several detailed studies concerning the geology and tectonic development (Ducloz, 1972; Ealey 79 and Knox, 1975; Baroz, 1979; Huang et al., 2007; McCay et al., 2012; Robertson et al., 2012 b; 80 2013, and the references therein). The Kyrenia Range is about 160 km long, 1 to 5 km wide, and 81 arcuate (Figs. 1B and 2A). The topography is rugged in the central part, where the crests reach 82 1000 m. Two E-W trending fault zones bound the Kyrenia Range, which rises like a wall from the 83 surrounding lowlands. Toward the east and west, the topography becomes subdued, where 3 © The Author(s) or their Institution(s) Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences Page 4 of 53 84 stratigraphically higher, younger rocks, mainly the Plio-Quaternary sedimentary rocks, 85 unconformably cover the older rocks. 86 There is an internally chaotic unit at the base of the Kyrenia Range (Fig. 3) observed in scattered 87 outcrops (Fig. 4A). It consists of a mixture of rocks of different ages and origins. The dominant 88 components belong to the upper layers of an ophiolitic association; basalt, diabase, and gabbro 89 embedded in a serpentinite or spilitic basalt matrix that shows extreme disruption and a chaotic 90 internal structure formed mainly by tectonic shearing at different crustal depths as revealed by 91 different metamorphic grades (mostly incipient stage or low grade) detected in the blocks and the 92 matrix (Figs. 5, 6, and 7). This internally chaotic unit may be defined as an ophiolitic mélange 93 (Festa et al., 2018). Within the mélange are blocks of radiolarite and pelagic limestones ranging in 94 age from Upper Cretaceous to Eocene, and exotic blocks of neritic limestones, marbles, phyllites, 95 flysch, and olistostromes that were derived from continental crust. Size of the blocks varies from 96 a few cm to tens of meters (Figs. 4A, 6, and 7). This internally chaotic assemblage may be 97 interpreted as an accretionary complex Draft(Meschede, 2014; Festa, 2018). The data derived from a 98 scattered outcrop make it difficult, at this stage, to assess varying roles of the different mixing 99 mechanisms (Wakabayashi and Dilek, 2011). The chaotic assemblage displays textures of low 100 temperature cataclastic deformation, which pervades the rocks on every scale (Figs. 5 and 6). 101 The deep-sea sedimentary rocks, known as Lapidos or Lapta Group (Cyprus Geological Survey 102 Department, 1995), stratigraphically overlie the ophiolitic mélange-accretionary complex. The 103 depositional contacts in rare exposures reveal that they were deposited above the mélange in an 104 oceanic environment. Within the pelagic sedimentary sequence, Hakyemez and Toker (2010) and 105 Hakyemez and Özkan-Altıner (2010) differentiated six planktonic foraminifera biozones 106 corresponding to the Campanian-middle Eocene age range, and correlated them along and across 107 Cyprus, 108 Volcanic rocks of basic-intermediate and felsic compositions alternate with the deep-sea 109 sedimentary rocks (Figs.