Education  

Research project: From shortening to extension in the upper plate of roll-back subduction: Aegean case

My PhD project is supervised by Mark Handy (FU) in collaboration with Aral Okay (ITU).

The Aegean and the Western Anatolia is a region of north-south extension since the Latest Oligocene-Early Miocene, following a period of shortening and high pressure-low temperature metamorphism in the Eocene. Eocene HP/LT regional metamorphism has been well characterized in the Cycladic islands and the Late Oligocene-Early Miocene extension is documented from the metamorphic core complexes in these islands. The origin of these metamorphic core complexes is controversial, with metamorphism and exhumation attributed to both shortening and extension. Western Anatolia is the best place to clarify this problem where the easternmost continuation of the Cycladic Complex is in tectonic contact with other tectonic units of the Aegean region (The Menderes Massif and the Bornova Flysch). I investigate the Cenozoic geological evolution of these tectonic units to understand how and when these units were juxtaposed -during shortening or extension- and the implications of this juxtaposition for the Aegean geodynamics and Africa-Anatolia plate convergence. I also aim to understand the behavior of the upper plates during roll-back subduction.

Peer-reviewed papers:

Erbil Ü., Okay AI., Hakyemez A., 2021, Late Oligocene – Early Miocene shortening in the Thrace Basin, northern Aegean, International Journal of Earth Sciences (Geologische Rundschau).  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-021-02047-3

 Özcan E., Yücel AO., Catanzarati R., Kaygili S., Okay AI., Simmons M., Pignatti J., Abbasi I., Erbil Ü., 2021, Multiple Orbitoides d’Orbigny lineages in the Maastrichtian? Data from the Central Sakarya Basin (Turkey) and Arabian Platform successions (Southeastern Turkey and Oman), Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 140 (8), pp. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-021-00219-x

 Yücel, AO., Özcan, E., Erbil, Ü., 2020, Latest Priabonian larger benthic foraminiferal assemblages at the demise of the Soğucak Carbonate Platform (Thrace Basin and Black Sea shelf, NW Turkey): implications for the shallow marine biostratigraphy, Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences 29, pp. 85-114.

Conference abstracts:

Erbil Ü., Okay AI., Hakyemez A., 2021, Eocene-Oligocene Sedimentation and Late Oligocene-Early Miocene Deformation in the Southwestern Part of the Thrace Basin, NW Turkey, Geological Congress of Turkey with International Participation, Oral Presentation.

Erbil, Ü., Okay, AI., Özcan, E., 2019, Late Oligocene-Early Miocene deformation in the Thrace Basin and the structure of the Korudağı, NW Turkey, IESCA International Earth Science Colloquium on the Aegean Region, Oral Presentation.