1ST PALEOMAGNETIC EVIDENCE FOR A POSTEOCENE CLOCKWISE ROTATION OF THE WESTERN TAURIDES THRUST BELT EAST OF THE ISPARTA REENTRANT (SOUTHWESTERN TURKEY)

A paleomagnetic study was carried out on 23 sites sampled in Paleocene, Eocene and Lower Miocene sedimentary formations of the Western Taurides belt east of the Isparta reentrant. The paleomagnetic data, based on twelve suitable sites, record a coherent post-Eocene approximately 40-degrees clockwise rotation throughout the area studied. We interpret this regional rotation as a semi-rigid rotation of the whole Western Taurides belt above a major deep decollement level. Together with previously published data, these new results suggest that the Isparta reentrant would result from diachronous opposite rotations of the two branches: first a late Eocene-Oligocene clockwise rotation of the Akseki-Beysehir Taurides initiating the Tauride arc, and then anticlockwise rotation of the Lycian Taurides, probably during Middle Miocene times.