Kinematic evidence for Late Mesozoic–Miocene emplacement of the Lycian Allochthon over the Western Anatolide Belt, SW Turkey

Recent controversies relating to the transport directions of the Lycian Allochthon and the kinematic relationships of this to the underlying Menderes Massif are addressed by looking at the structural record preserved at the main tectonic boundaries within the Lycian Allochthon. Rocks today within the Lycian Thrust Sheets were deposited as a north‐facing Late Palaeozoic– Mesozoic rift/passive margin succession that formed in a northern Neotethys Ocean separating the Menderes–Tauride block and Eurasia. The allochthon was emplaced onto the southern continental margin in stages from latest Cretaceous to Late Miocene times. Throughout the Lycian Allochthon early kinematic fabrics indicate that the allochthon was emplaced, and successively transported, from northwest to southeast. Mylonites at the contact between the Lycian Allochthon and the underlying Menderes Massif exhibit top‐to‐the‐east non‐coaxial flow. The major tectonic boundaries within the allochthon preserve various kinematic indicators showing top‐to‐the‐southeast transport. An intra‐platform basin (Tavas/Bozdağ unit), represented by structurally low Mesozoic–Palaeogene successions, probably originated as a rift basin between the Menderes Massif to the north and the Bey Dağları carbonate platform to the south. However, there is no structural evidence that the Lycian Thrust Sheets or the Lycian Peridotite Thrust Sheet were rooted in this basin.