Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, cilt.176, sa.4, ss.704-726, 2019 (SCI-Expanded)
The central Menderes Massif (western Turkey) is a prominent example of symmetrical exhumation of a core complex. It comprises the Bozdag and Aydin ranges, which represent the footwalls of the north-dipping Gediz detachment and the south-dipping Buyuk Menderes detachment, respectively. In contrast to the Gediz detachment, the role of the Buyuk Menderes detachment during Late Cenozoic extension and exhumation of the central Menderes Massif is less well resolved. Here, we present results from structural and geological mapping as well as new fission-track and (U-Th)/He data to show that two low-angle normal faults contributed to the exhumation of the Aydin range. Our data indicate that the sustained activity of the Buyuk Menderes detachment since the early Miocene is followed by the onset of faulting along the previously unrecognized Demirhan detachment, which is situated in the hanging wall of the Buyuk Menderes detachment, in the latest Miocene/Pliocene. Thermokinematic modelling of cooling ages from the footwalls of the Buyuk Menderes and Demirhan detachments yielded exhumation rates of c. 0.5 and c. 0.4 km Ma(-1), respectively. Apatite fission track ages from the Demirhan detachment indicate a slip rate of c. 2 km Ma(-1) during the Pliocene. High-angle normal faulting along the modern Buyuk Menderes graben commenced in the Quaternary.