•  
  •  
 

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

DOI

10.55730/1300-0985.1912

Abstract

The turbiditic succession containing exotic blocks of various sizes deposited in the Çüngüş Basin, has been previously identified as the Çüngüş Formation in front of the Southeast Anatolian Suture Belt, Türkiye. These turbiditic sediments, dated as Eocene-Early Miocene, were interpreted as the lowermost allochthonous tectono-stratigraphic unit thrust over the Lice Formation during the Miocene within the Çüngüş-Hakkari nappes. In this study, the stratigraphical, sedimentological, palaeontological, and structural features of the Çüngüş and Lice formations are examined and reinterpreted within a basin model. Both formations consist of sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, and subordinate conglomerates, indicating ramp-fringe palaeochannel, submarine fan, and basin-floor turbidite facies associations. In the northern part of the basin, just in front of the suture belt, volcanic, metamorphic, and ophiolitic rocks and nummulitic limestones are included as blocks and tectonic slices within the turbidite succession. Based on nannoplankton analysis, both Çüngüş and Lice formations are assigned an Early Miocene age. The sedimentary facies associations filling the Çüngüş Basin are transitional from proximal to distal facies. The thrust in the previous maps separating the Çüngüş and Lice formations cannot be confirmed in the field. Based on our field observations and age data, we interpret that the Lice and the Çüngüş formations deposited continuously within the Çüngüş Basin that was opened as a foreland basin by flexural subsidence of the Arabian Autochthon under the crustal load of the Pütürge-Bitlis Massifs and the Maden Complex during the Early Miocene. The turbidite deposits containing exotic blocks in the north of the basin are interpreted as wedge-top deposits of the foreland basin, while those in the south are considered foredeep deposits.

Keywords

Foreland basin, wedge-top depozone, foredeep depozone, ramp-fringe palaeochannels, submarine fan deposits, Çüngüş Basin

First Page

279

Last Page

295

Download

Share

COinS