9-9 Multi-Mineral Detrital Petrochronology as a Provenance Tool in Subduction-to-Collisional Settings: Preliminary Insights from the Ulukışla Basin, a Polyphase Basin in Central Anatolia, Türkiye

Session: Sedimentary Systems and Provenance in the Western Cordillera (Posters)

Presenting Author:

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Abstract:

The limitations of detrital zircon-based provenance analysis are particularly pronounced in continental collision settings, where sediment sources commonly include obducted ophiolitic rocks, inverted basins, exhumed metamorphic massifs, and arc- and/or collisional setting-related magmatic rocks. These lithologies record critical pressure–temperature–time (P–T–t) information tied to regional geodynamic processes, yet are often underrepresented in zircon-only datasets. In the Anatolian segment of the Alpine–Himalayan orogenic system, subduction of various branches of the Neotethys oceanic lithosphere and successive collision of continental blocks assembled the Anatolian continental domain and led to numerous ~E–W-trending suture zones.

The Ulukışla Basin of Central Anatolia preserves a Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic stratigraphic record that spans the transition from the late stage of subduction to continental collision and subsequent tectonic escape. As such, it provides an exceptional natural laboratory to evaluate the potential of alternative detrital petrochronometers to better understand the complex tectonic evolution of this region. Potential sediment sources to the basin include high-grade metamorphic massifs, obducted ophiolites and mélanges as well as Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene felsic igneous rocks.

Here, we present new detrital zircon, apatite, titanite, and rutile U-Pb geochronology and trace element geochemistry from sedimentary infill of the Ulukışla Basin. We also characterize the age distributions and geochemical signatures of key sediment sources with modern sand samples from the Niğde metamorphic massif and adjacent ophiolitic complexes. We present preliminary results and discuss them in the context of three interrelated implications: (1) the extent to which geochronologic and trace element signatures of mafic and metamorphic sediment sources are preserved in the stratigraphic record; (2) how the transitions from subduction to continental collision to tectonic escape are expressed in the mineralogical and geochemical signatures of detrital components derived from different stages of tectonic evolution; and (3) more broadly, how integrated detrital petrochronology can be used to reconstruct sedimentary basin evolution and regional tectonic processes.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3, 2026

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