Tectono-stratigraphical evolution of the se orogenic belt and cover units from the Caglayancerit–Helete (Kahramanmaras) area

The frontal part of the SE Anatolian thrust belt and the adjacent Arabian continental margin provide well exposures around the vicinity of Çağlayancerit (Kahramanmaraş/Turkey). Sedimentary and structural data obtained from the study area evaluated to provide new information of tectono-stratigraphical evolution of the region. Major tectono-stratigraphic units in the study area: 1) Arabian Foreland: Studied succession begins with Eocene shelf carbonates, ranging from shallow-marine to deeper-marine, without sedimentary input from the Tauride continent to the north. Following regional uplifting (Oligocene) to the north, sedimentation resumed during the Early Miocene with terrigenous gravity-flow deposition in the north (Lice Formation) and shallow-marine carbonates further south. Clastic detritus was derived from the Tauride continent and oceanic accretionary material. 2) Accretionary complex: This structural unit begins with ophiolite derived mudstone, sandstone and fine-coarse grained clastics, above this ophiolitic rocks such as serpentinite, gabbro and sheeted dike and basaltic extrusive rock slices. Ophiolitic rocks are locally cut by granitic rocks. 3) Above this, the regional-scale Bulgurkaya sedimentary mélange are observed on top of the accretionary complex, including blocks and dismembered thrust sheets of metamorphic rocks, limestone and sandstone, which comprises Late Cretaceous and Eocene foraminifera. The matrix is mainly strongly deformed Eocene-Oligocene mudrocks, hemipelagic marl and sandstone turbidites. 4) Malatya Metamorphics: Regional extensive metamorphic thrust slices, which has a thickness of several kilometers, is usually composed of tectonic marbles, schists and phyllites from the green schist facies. According to data obtained from the region it's determined that the accretionary complex units composed of several thrust slices formed by northward subduction of the S. Neotethys beneath the Tauride micro continent represented by Malatya Metamorphics and emplaced to the northern margin of the depressed Arabian foreland in the Early Miocene. In the later stages of continental collision in the region, in the basin formed by flexural bending of the Arabian foreland, turbiditic Lice formation deposited in the Early Miocene.