Stratigraphical evidence for the depression of the northern margin of the Menderes – Tauride Block (Turkey) during the Late Cretaceous Erol Ozer * , Hayati Koc, Turker Y. Ozsayar Department of Geological Engineering, Mersin University, 33342 Ciftlikkoy/Mersin, Turkey Received 22 February 2002; accepted 26 December 2002 Abstract Upper Cretaceous units on the Menderes – Tauride Block show a transition from a passive continental margin to a pelagic basin. This transition is related to the emplacement of ophiolitic nappes. The pelagic sediments were studied in the Aydıncık and Arslanko ¨y (Mersin) areas in the central Tauride region, and in the Munzur Mountains in eastern Tauride region. In the Aydıncık area Upper Cretaceous units consist of Upper Campanian carbonate breccias with rudist fragments; Upper Campanian – Lower Maastrichtian slope-to-basinal sediments overlie these carbonate breccias disconformably. In the Arslanko ¨y area the Upper Campanian –Maastrichtian Yavca Formation consists of Globotruncana-bearing biomicrites, siliciclastic turbidites, calciturbidites and debris flows and overlies Jurassic – Cretaceous platform carbonates disconformably. The uppermost levels of the Liassic – Cenomanian platform carbonates in the Munzur Mountains are composed of Cenomanian Hippurites/Orbitolina-bearing reefal limestones and then Turonian – Campanian Globotruncanidae-bearing biomicrites. The stratigraphic sequence in the Menderes – Tauride Block shows that rifting to form a northern Neotethyan basin took place in the Triassic and gave rise to the Inner Tauride Ocean. From Jurassic to Cenomanian times, the northern part of the Menderes – Tauride Platform formed a passive continental margin. In the Late Cretaceous the Inner Tauride Ocean is believed to have commenced intra-oceanic, northward subduction. Inner Tauride oceanic crust-derived nappes were emplaced southward onto the Menderes – Tauride Block. Flexural foreland basins in which pelagic sediments were deposited were formed in the Taurus Mountains related to southward thrusting and the emplacement of the ophiolite nappes. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Passive margin; Inner Tauride Ocean; Foreland basin; Menderes–Tauride Block; Thrust emplacement 1. Introduction The Mesozoic lithological associations of Anatolia document the development of a mosaic of microcontinents and carbonate platforms, separated by ophiolitic suture zones; the latter represent oceanic crust formed as a result of the Triassic break-up of Gondwanaland (Fig. 1). This complex structure formed as a result of the closure of different branches of the multi-branched Neo-Tethys Ocean during the Late Cretaceous–Miocene (Sengo ¨r and Yylmaz, 1981). During the Triassic the Inner Tauride Ocean, one of the two northern branches of Neo-Tethys, began to open between the Menderes–Tauride Block in the south and the Kirsehir Block in the north (Fig. 1)(Sengo ¨r and Yylmaz, 1981; Sengo ¨ r, 1987; Robertson and Dixon, 1984; Robertson et al., 1996; Robertson, 1998). Gorur et al. (1984, 1998) suggested that from the Cretaceous to the Eocene the Inner Tauride Ocean separated the Kirsehir and the Menderes–Tauride Blocks. They proposed that during the Late Cretaceous–Middle Eocene collision between these two blocks generated ophiolite nappes from the Inner Tauride Ocean (Beys ¸ehir – Hoyran and Hadim nappes), which were emplaced south and southwestwards onto the Menderes–Tauride Block. Go ¨ncu ¨og ˘lu et al. (1991, 1992) and C ¸ emen et al. (1999) interpreted the ophiolitic rocks as thrust sheets emplaced over the Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex and Kutahya – Bolkardag ˘ı Belt units during the closure of the Yzmir – Ankara branch of Neo-tethys. The time of emplace- ment of the ophiolitic rocks are bracketed between post- Turonian to pre-late Maastrichtian in the Central Anatolian 1367-9120/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1367-9120(03)00084-1 Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 22 (2004) 401–412 www.elsevier.com/locate/jseaes * Corresponding author. E-mail address: erolozer@yahoo.com (E. Ozer).