TURKISH JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, vol.21, no.4, pp.439-471, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
Izmir Bay is an actively growing shallow marine basin controlled by active faults trending NE, NW, N-S and E-W, in the West Anatolian Extensional Province. The bay of Izmir is a lazy L-shaped superimposed basin which is topographically divided into an E-W-trending inner bay and a NW-trending outer bay. The Inner Bay of Izmir is an asymmetric graben structure approximately 5-7 km wide and 25 km long containing (i) upper Cretaceous-Palaeocene basement, (ii) an older succession of lower to upper Miocene basin fill, overlain with angular unconformity by (iii) a younger Plio-Quaternary basin fill. The older succession contain a 0.5- to 1.5-km-thick, folded and coal-bearing continental volcano-sedimentary sequence. The younger succession of the Inner Bay of Izmir includes the upper Pliocene-Pleistocene Gorece formation and Holocene to recent alluvial fan, fan delta to shallow marine deposits.