Emplacement age and direction of the Lycian nappes in the Soke-Selcuk region, western Turkey

In the Soke-Selcuk region, western Turkey, the northernmost exposures of the Lycian nappes are found as tectonic slices on the Menderes Massif. The Menderes Massif is represented by a continuous platform sequence and a blocky unit. The lower parts of the Menderes platform sequence is composed of Triassic-Jurassic marbles and an alternation of calcschists and micaschists: however, the upper parts are composed of emery- and rudist-bearing massive marbles. Along a gradational boundary, a blocky unit is found on top of the platform sequence, and it comprises blocks of metaophiolite and emery-bearing marble set in garnet-micaschists matrix. Along a low-angle fault marked by thin slices of red-green phyllites, tectonic slices of the Lycian nappes overlay garnet-micaschists of the massif. The Lycian nappes are represented mainly by a carbonate sequence which consists of dolomites, oncoidal limestones. intraformational limestone conglomerates, and cherty limestones. In the carbonate sequence of the Lycian nappes, undeformed primary structures are clearly observed just several meters above the sole fault, indicating a metamorphic break between the Lycian nappes and the Menderes Massif. The linear fabric in red-green phyllites at the sole of the Lycian nappes trends NNE-SSW, gently plunges to SSW and NNE, and is parallel to the linear fabric of the neotectonic period in the western Turkey. S/C relation suggests top-to-the SSW sense of shear in red-green phyllites. The deformation localized along the sole of the tectonic slices indicates that the red-green phyllites acted as a decollement surface. The deformational features, stratigraphic relations, orientation of linear fabric and metamorphic break reveal that Lycian nappes were emplaced on the Menderes Massif along a low-angle normal fault, after the Early to Middle Eocene Main Menderes metamorphism and prior to the deposition of the Middle Miocene sedimentary cover.