f New Data and Interpretation on the Development of the South East Anatolian Orogenic Belt

This paper describes the orogenic evolution of the South East Anatolian orogenic belt based on new geological,geochemical and geophysical data. Southeast Anatolia underwent two major stages of nappe emplacements. The first one occurred during the late Cretaceous. During this period a giant ophiolite slab and some thrust slices dragged under the obducting ophiolite were emplaced on to the northern edge of the Arabian Platform. This ophiolite and the other constituent tectonic elements represent a supra subduction zone proto ophiolite which is dated to be about 90 m y old, and formed as a result of the northerly subducting of an older oceanic lithosphere (Southern branch of the Neo Tethyan ocean) which had been generated during the Late Triassic-Jurassic period. The total consumption of this older oceanic lithosphere led to a collision between the forearc of the newly developed SSZ ophiolite and the Arabian Plate. This emplacement event survived from the Turonian till the end of Early Maastrichtian period.