LYCIAN MELANGE, SOUTHWESTERN TURKEY - AN EMPLACED LATE CRETACEOUS ACCRETIONARY COMPLEX

The Lycian thrust belt is an important part of the Tethyan orogenic be lt in the eastern Mediterranean region. It includes a unit of internal ly disrupted, thin-skinned thrust sheets (layered tectonic melange) an d a melange rich in ophiolitic material (ophiolitic melange). The laye red tectonic melange is dominated by Mesozoic distal deep-water sedime ntary rocks, and the ophiolitic melange includes disrupted thrust shee ts of early Mesozoic shallow-water limestone and blocks of basalt of b oth mid-ocean ridge and within-plate geochemical affinities. A complet e record of closure of a Tethyan oceanic basin began with Late Cretace ous intraoceanic subduction, followed by latest Cretaceous trench-cont inental collision, and ended with mid-Tertiary continental collision, and orogenic collapse.