Table Of ContentTectonic Evolution of the Tethyan Region
NATO ASI Series
Advanced Science Institutes Series
A Series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NA TO Science Committee,
which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and technological knowledge,
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G Ecological Sciences Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London,
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Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences - Vol. 259
Tectonic Evolution
of the Tethyan Region
edited by
A.M.C.$engor
Department of Geology,
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
with assistance from
Y. Yllmaz, A. I. Okay, and N. Gorur
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Dordrecht / Boston / London
Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on
Tectonic Evolution of the Tethyan Region
The Faculty of Mines, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
23 September - 2 October 1985
in honour of Prof. Dr. rer.nat. ihsan Ketin
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
NATO Advanced Study InstItute on the "Tectonic Evolution of Tethyan
Region" (1986 Istanbul Technical University. Faculty of Mines)
Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan Region: proceedings of the NATO
Advanced Study Institute on the "Tectonic Evolution of Tethyan
Region" held in the Faculty of Mines, Istanbul Technical University,
Istanbul, Turkey, 23rd September-2nd October 1986 in honour of Prof.
Dr. rer. nat. lhsan Ketin / edited by A.M.C. ~engor with assistance
from Y. Yllmaz, A.I. Okay, and N. Gor~r.
p. cm. -- (NATO ASI series. Series C, Mathematical and
physical sciences; no. 259)
Inc 1u des index.
ISBN 0-7923-0067-X
1. Geology--Asia--Congresses. 2. Tethys (Paleography)-
-Congresses. 3. Ketin, lhsan--Congresses. I. ~engor, A. M. Celal.
II. Ketin, lhsan. Ill. Title. IV. Series.
OE289.N38 1986
551.7' . 0095--dc 19 88-31485
ISBN-13: 978-94-010-7509-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-2253-2
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-2253-2
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All Rights Reserved
© 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ni
List of Participants xi
List of Contributors xxvii
Professor ihsan Ketin: An Appreciation xxxi
The Tethyside Orogenic System: An Introduction
A.M.C. ~engor
One Some Key Features of the Evolution of the Western Alps
J. Debelmas 23
The Geometry of Crustal Shortening in the Western Alps
R.W.H. Butler 43
Triassic and Jurassic Oceanic/Paraoceanic Belts in the
Carpathian-Pannonian Region and its Surroundings
M. Kazmer and S. Kovacs 77
Major Events of the Tectono-Sedimentary Evolution of the North
Hungarian Paleo-Mesozoic:
History of the Northwestern Termination of the Late Paleozoic -
Early Mesozoic Tethys
S. Kovacs 93
Tectonic Units and Sutures in the Pontides, Northern Turkey
A.I. Okay 109
An Example for the Tectonic Evolution of the Arabian Platform
Margin (SE Anatolia) During Mesozoic and Some Criticisms of
the Previously Suggested Models
D. Alt1ner 117
Timing of Opening of the Black Sea: Sedimentological
Evidence from the Rhodope-Pontide Fragment
N. Gorur 131
Paleomagnetic Study of the Neogene Formations of the
Aegean Area
C. Kissel, C. Laj, A. Mazaud, A. Poisson,
Y. Savascin, K. Simeakis, C. Fraissinet, J.L. Mercier 137
An Approach to the Origin of Young Volcanic Rocks of
Western Turkey
Y. Y1lmaz 159
Tectonic Evolution of Paleotethys in the Caucasus Sector of the
Mediterranean Belt: Basic Problems
A.A. Belov 191
VI
Palaeomagnetism of Upper Cretaceous Rocks from the
Caucasus and its Implications for Tectonics
M.L. Bazhenov and V.S. Burtman 217
Tethys Evolution in the Afghanistan-Pamir-Pakistan Region
J. Stocklin 241
Tectonogenesis and Evolution of a Segment of the Cimmerides:
The Volcano-Sedimentary Triassic of Aghdarband (Kopet-Dagh,
North-East Iran)
A. Baud and G.M. Stampfli 265
Geology of the Baluchistan (Pakistan) Portion of the Southern
Margin of the Tethys Sea
G.R.McCormick 277
The Himalayan Orogenic Segment
P. Le Fort 289
Crustal Scale Thrusting and Continental Subduction During
Himalayan Collision Tectonics on the NW Indian Plate
R.W.H. Butler and M.P. Coward 387
The Tectonic Evolution of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: A Review
Chang Chen-Fa, Pan Yu-Sheng and Sun Yi-Ying 415
The Neo-Cimmerian Ophiolite Belt in Afghanistan and Tibet:
Comparison and Evolution
J. Girardeau, J. Marcoux and C. Montenat 477
The Western End of the Tibetan Plateau
A. Baud 505
Thrusting on the Tibetan flateau Within the Last 5 Ma
K. Burke and L. Lucas 507
Tectonic Evolution of the Yangtze Tectonic Regime
Zhang Qinwen, Qu Jingchuan and Chen Bingwei 513
Mesozoic Suturing in the Huanan Alps and the Tectonic Assembly
of South China
K.J. Hsu, Sun Shu and Li Jiliang 551
The Shan Plateau and Western Burma: Mesozoic-Cenozoic Plate
Boundaries and Correlations with Tibet
A.H.G. Mitchell 567
The Palaeo-Tethyan Realm and Indosinian Orogenic System of
Southeast Asia
C.S. Hutchison 585
The Contribution of Vertebrate Palaeontology to the
Geodynamic History of South East Asia
E. Buffetaut 645
Convergent-Plate Tectonics Viewed from the Indonesian
Region
W. Hamilton 655
PREFACE
The ihsan Ketin NATO Advanced Study Institute on the Tectonic
Evolution of the Tethyan Region was conceived in 1982 in Veszprem,
Hungary, when three of the organizers (B.C.B., L.H.R. and A.M.C.9.) had
come together for a meeting on the tectonics of the Pannonian basin. All
three of us had experience in the Tethyan belt and all three of us had
been for some time deploring the lack of communication among workers of
this immense orogenic belt. Much new work had been completed in such
previously little-known areas as Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, the People's
Republic of China, the entire Himalayan region, as well as new work in
the European parts of the chain. Also, ironically, parts of the belt had
just been closed to field work for political reasons, so it seemed as
if the time was right to sit back and consider what had been done so
far. Because the Istanbul group had had an interest in the whole of the
Tethyan belt and because that ancient city was more centrally locElted
with excellent opportunities to see both Palaeo- and Neo-Tethyan rocks
in a weekend excursion, we thought that Istanbul was a natural place for
such a meeting, not mentioning its own considerable attractions for the
would-be contributors.
A happy coincidence was that Prof.ihsan Ketin, one of the foremost
leaders in the tectonics of the central Tethyan regions and the dean of
Turkish geologists, was to retire from active teaching in 1983. We
decided to seize the opportunity of gathering to honour Ketin to
assemble the Tethyan workers. One of us (B.C.B.) thought that perhaps
a NATO ASI was the best medium, but the necessity of involving numerous
non-NATO participants and contributors made it imperative that other
sources of finance be found. The Istanbul Technical University and its
Faculty of Mines immediately declared themselves at our disposal to host
the meeting and Dr.Remzi Akkok of Ak§an Engineering and Consulting Co.
in Istanbul (a former pupil of Ketin, and a faculty member at the iTO)
agreed to organize the logistics in Istanbul and also for the excursion.
We also asked Dr.Yticel Yllmaz (then of the University of Istanbul), the
noted Tethyan worker and an associate of Ketin whether he would join us
as the fourth organizer. Yllmaz enthusiastically accepted and we applied
to NATO foran ASI grant, which was swiftly given. To finance the
non-NATO workers we were generously supported by the following oil
companies: Arco Int., Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc., Gulf Research and
Development Co., Exxon Production and Research Company, Texaco Inc., and
Esso Exploration Inc. For the local logistics in Istanbul and for the
preparation of the meeting folders we are also grateful to Fruko-Tamek
Meyva Sularl Sanayii A.$., istanbul.
vii
viii
The meeting in Istanbul was a success; most of the contributors
invi ted had responded .posi ti vely and all of those showed up. The meeting
format was an unusual one, with prinicipal contributors designated for
13 segments of the orogenic belts to be supplanted by "commentators".
This format worked well h r the meeting, but was a failure for the
published proceedings. Four of the principal contributors failed to
procude written accounts that considerably disturbed the original plan.
Also some of the contributors have provided excellent papers that were
more than just "comments" as originally intended. As a result, the
original plan had to be given up and a more conventional book with a
series of papers of equal standing was accepted.
The publication of the proceedings took an unusually long time for
a NATO ASI for two principal reasons. One was the slow inflow of
manuscripts that had been asked to be delivered at the meeting in
September 1985. The last manuscript was received in late 1987 and the
book had to be closed in early 1988 owing to pressure of time (and t~1e
publisher), despite that one major paper was still pending. The second
reason was the requirement that the book had to be author-prepared for
copy-printing. This requires high quality typewriters and acceptable
English. Many of the contributors seemingly had little experience in
preparing author-prepared manuscripts and consequently many had to be
retyped in Istanbul, for which some currency exchange problem prevented
NATO to supply the funds. Also a large number of the papers had to be
thoroughly edited for improving the English, which, in places
deteriorated to unintelligibility. Most of the figures had to be reshot
for reduction.
Having been reduced to a copy-editor and page designer with no
funds, I was compelled to ask for help from a few friends to have the
papers typed and figures reshot. Done on a charity basis, we simply had
to await the gaps in the heavy schedules of the companies who deci.ded
to assist us. Yticel Yllmaz, Naci Gortir, Aral Okay and Remzi Akkok all
shared bits of the editorial responsibilty and Remzi kindly delegated
to us office space in which the book could be assembled away from the
daily turbulance of the university. I must thank all of these people and
the Ajans-Tek for the numerous photographic reproductions and the Stirat
Daktilo Company for typing many of the papers despite their heavy
schedules. Yticel Yllmaz did much to expediate the editing while I was
busy with other things.
The resulting book is a heterogeneous one, both physically and in
terms of the contents of the contributions. Only two papers submitted
had to be rejected owing to low scientific standards. A few others for
which one reviewer recommended rejection were accepted on the basis of
two considerations: either the paper represented a common view in a
given region and we felt that this had to be known, even if we
disaggreed with it for good reasons, or the paper represented a
band-wagon approach to a certain problem, for which this approach was
not the most appropriate. This last category was given a place so that
the reader of this book will know what is being done by a large number
of workers.
ix
The book as a whole is somewhat skewed towards Asia. This was
desirable, as Asia is the place from where the flow of information is
most irregular. But as a whole we hope it provides a good basis for
general Tethyan reading. More important, it is our hope that such
Tethyan meetings and Tethyan compendia of papers will become more
frequent in the future. This meeting taught us what the problems might
be in organizing such endeavours and we now know how to tackle them. But
most important of all we know how willing the Tethyan workers are to
come together and argue about their problems. That this meeting united
people from Europe, Asia, North America·, Austraila, and Africa shows
that there really are no barriers that cannot be broken from one end of
the Tethysides to the other. This sincere "internationalism" is the
spirit of the sponsors of this meeting, it is the spirit of the man in
whose honour we all came together, and is the spirit of the founders of
the Technical University, whose hospitality we all enjoyed. Before I
close this preface, I need to thank Prof.Dr.Kemal Kafall, the energetic
Rector Magnificus of the iTtl, and ProLDr .Erdogan Ytizer, the equally
enthusiastic Dean of the Faculty of Mines of the iTti. We also thank
Kevin Burke who substituted for Clark Burchfiel as Institute Director
while Clark was hammering at Tethyside outcrops at Ulu Muztagh!
A. Mo C. Sengor
for the Organizers:
B. C. Burchfiel
L. H. Royden
A. M. C. Seng~r
Y. Yllmaz
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Dr.Remzi Akkok
AK$AN A.$., Investigation,
Consulting and Engineering
Bliylikdere Caddesi 73/11
Mecidiyekoy, Istanbul
Telefon: 172 35 04 - 172 35 05
TURKEY
Dr.Demir Altlner
Ortadogu Teknik Vniversitesi
Mlihendislik Fakliltesi
Jeoloji Bollimti
Ankara, TURKEY
237100/2692 or 2682
Mustafa Aydln
Tlirkiye Petrolleri A.$.
Arama Grubu
Mtidafaa Caddesi 22, P.K.209
Jakanllklar, Ankara
TURKEY
Ozer Balka$
Tlirkiye Petrolleri A.$.
Arama Grubu
Mtidafaa Caddesi 22, P.K. 209
Bakanllklar, Ankara
TURKEY
Muawia Barazangi
Institute for the Study of the Continents
Snee Hall
Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
(607) 256-6411
Telex: 937478
Aymon Baud
Geological Institute
Palais de Rumine
CH-1005 Lausanne
SWITZERLAND
xi
