THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE UPLIFT OF THE CENTRAL ANATOLIAN PLATEAU (CAP) SOUTHERN MARGIN: NEW EVIDENCE FROM MUT AND ANTALYA BASINS (SOUTH TURKEY)

This thesis investigates the Mut and Antalya basins in southern Turkey to understand how deep Earth processes, particularly slab segmentation, slab break-off, and associated mantle upwelling, shape surface uplift across Anatolia. These basins preserve the highest late Middle Pleistocene marine deposits known worldwide, offering a rare natural laboratory for linking mantle-scale dynamics to rapid surface deformation. The Mut Basin, located along the Central Anatolian Plateau (CAP) southern margin, contains a marine succession now uplifted to 1177 m a.s.l. Foraminiferal biostratigraphy, marked by the consistent presence of Globigerinella calida from the base upward, indicates that deposition began after ~0.53 Ma. The calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphic markers, specifically the last occurrence of Pseudoemiliania lacunosa (0.46 Ma) and the first occurrence of Emiliania huxleyi (0.26 Ma), combined with, paleomagnetic data confirm a late Middle Pleistocene age. Ostracod taphonomy indicates a shallowing marine environment from upper epibathyal to littoral conditions. Integrating paleobathymetry (~50 m b.s.l.) with global sea-level estimates at 0.23 Ma (~−18 m) yields an exceptional uplift rate of ~5.2 m/kyr, among the highest ever documented for this time period. This rapid uplift likely reflects asthenospheric upwelling and lithospheric rebound following slab break-off beneath Cyprus. In contrast, the Antalya Basin, situated within the tectonically complex Isparta Angle (IA) where the Aegean and Cyprus subduction systems converge, records a more moderate uplift history. New lithostratigraphic and micropalaeontological analyses from the Manavgat Sub-basin (MNV) composite succession show that deposition continued until ~0.23 Ma, significantly revising previously assigned Miocene–Early Pleistocene ages. The deltaic succession records shifting upper and lower delta-front environments controlled by tectonics, sediment supply, and sea-level fluctuations. The calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy constrains the onset of deposition to after ~0.26 Ma, based on the presence of E. huxleyi, while the termination coincides with late Middle Pleistocene marine strata (TOL-1) in the Mut Basin. These constraints imply an average uplift rate of ~0.8 m/kyr, reflecting the combined influence of slab retreat and thermal–viscous relaxation of the upper plate. This study present new integrated stratigraphic and geomorphological constraints from the Mut Basin to reconstruct the timing, magnitude, and geodynamic drivers of Middle Pleistocene uplift in southern Anatolia. Geomorphological analyses further clarify these patterns. Marine- 4 terrace modelling, incorporating the new TOL-1 age and elevation, links seven terraces (30–1400 m a.s.l.) to major sea-level highstands and identifies a sharp uplift pulse peaking during MIS 5 (~120 ka) with rates of ~6.2 m/kyr, followed by slower Holocene uplift. River-profile inversions from seventeen catchments, independently confirm the timing and spatial focus of this uplift, showing coherent kilometre-scale growth of the southern Central Anatolian Plateau margin. When placed within the long-term vertical-motion history, two major subsidence phases (respectively at ~17.0 and 6.6 Ma) and two uplift pulses (~5.3 and 0.4 Ma) emerge, with the new Middle Pleistocene record documenting the fastest uplift rates yet identified. These contrasting uplift magnitudes between Mut and Antalya reflect fundamentally different deep-mantle forcing. The Mut Basin sits above an inferred Middle Pleistocene shallow slab break-off, which triggered asthenospheric upwelling and rapid lithospheric rebound, producing >1.2 km of uplift since ~0.40 Ma. Conversely, the Antalya Basin, positioned above a still-attached and retreating Antalya slab, experienced only modest uplift, driven by upper-plate processes such as influence of slab retreat, and and crustal relaxation. Together, these results demonstrate that repeated slab segmentation beneath the Cyprus subduction system, first during the late Messinian (~5.4 Ma) and again in the Middle Pleistocene(~0.40 Ma), governed the contrasting uplift histories of the Mut and Antalya basins. The sharp differential uplift of coeval deposits, highlights the strong influence of deep mantle dynamics on rapid surface deformation in southern Anatolia.