HÄSSIG , M.

We present arguments for an innovative tectonic set-up just prior to the Northern Neotethys obduction event in the NE Anatolian and Lesser Caucasus area. Along the Northern Neotethyan suture (the Ankara–Erzincan–Amasia–Sevan–Akera suture zone), relicts of the northern branch of the Neotethys oceanic domain outcrop as preserved unmetamorphosed...

The reason for obduction, or tectonic transport of oceanic lithosphere onto continents, is investigated by two-dimensional thermo-mechanical numerical modelling based on the geology of the Anatolia–Lesser Caucasus ophiolites. Heating of the oceanic domain and extension induced by far-field plate kinematics appear to be essential for the...

The lithological nature of major interplate boundaries is estimated by a field analysis of a well preserved exhumed subduction channel in the Caucasus Karabakh region. From this field example the subduction channel is a narrow geological object of about 500 m width formed at approximate depth of 10 km along an Andean-type subduction zone. It is...

The ophiolites of Amasia in the northwestern part of the Sevan-Akera suture zone (Lesser Caucasus, NW Armenia) correspond to a well-preserved example of a major obduction of oceanic lithosphere over the South Armenian continental block. Our mapping evidenced a series of (1) un-metamorphosed gabbroic oceanic crust, (2) serpentinites and a...

The ophiolites of Amasia in the northwestern part of the Sevan-Akera suture zone (Lesser Caucasus, NW Armenia) correspond to a well-preserved example of a major obduction of oceanic lithosphere over the South Armenian continental block. Our mapping evidenced a series of (1) un-metamorphosed gabbroic oceanic crust, (2) serpentinites and a...

This article summarizes the geodynamic evolution of the Variscan to Mesozoic Tethyan subduction history, based on a review of geochronological data from Eastern Anatolia and the Lesser Caucasus, and new isotopic ages for the Georgian crystalline basements. The geological history of the basements of Georgia (Transcaucasus) and NE Turkey (eastern...

The geologic evolution of the South Armenian Block (SAB) in the Mesozoic is reconstructed from a structural, metamorphic, and geochronologic study including U–Pb and 40Ar/39Ar dating. The South Armenian Block Crystalline Basement (SABCB) outcrops solely in a narrow tectonic window, NW of Yerevan. The study of this zone provides key and...

We report new observations in the eastern Black Sea-Caucasus region that allow reconstructing the evolution of the Neotethys in the Cretaceous. At that time, the Neotethys oceanic plate was subducting northward below the continental Eurasia plate. Based on the analysis of the obducted ophiolites that crop out throughout Lesser Caucasus and East...