Late Miocene surface uplift of the southern margin of the Central Anatolian plateau, Central Taurides, Turkey

""The timing and pattern of surface uplift of. Miocene marine sediments capping the southern. margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau. in southern Turkey provide a fi rst-order constraint. on possible mechanisms of regional. uplift. Nannofossil, ostracod, and planktic. foraminifera biostratigraphy of the Başyayla. section (Mut-Ermenek Basin) within the Mut. and Köselerli Formations suggests a Tortonian. age for marine sediments unconformably. capping basement rocks at ~2 km elevation.. The identifi cation of biozone MMi 12a. (7.81–8.35 Ma) from planktic foraminifera. in the upper part of the section provides the. tightest constraint on the age, which is further. limited to 8.35–8.108 Ma as a result of. the reverse polarity of the collected samples. (chron 4r.1r or 4r.2r). This provides a limiting. age for the onset of surface uplift at the. margin of one of the world’s major orogenic. plateaus, from which an average uplift rate. of 0.24–0.25 mm\\\/yr can be calculated.. Subhorizontal beds of the uppermost. marine sediments exposed throughout the. Mut-Ermenek Basin suggest minimal localized. deformation, with just minor faulting. at the basin margin and broad antiformal. deformation across the basin. This implies. that the post–8 Ma uplift mechanism must be. rooted deep within the crust or in the upper. mantle. Published Pn-wave velocity data for. the region are compatible with topography. compensated by asthenosphere across the. southern margin of the plateau, showing a. close match to the highest topography when. elevations are fi ltered with a 100-km-wide. smoothing window. Uplift along the southern. margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau. is also refl ected by the pattern of Miocene. marine sediments capping the margin,. which form an asymmetric drape fold over. the topography. These observations, together. with tomographic evidence for slab steepening. and break-off beneath the Eastern Anatolian. Plateau, suggest that at least some of. the ~2 km of post–8 Ma uplift of the southern. Central Anatolian Plateau margin is compensated. by low-density asthenospheric mantle. that upwelled following slab break-off.""