Figure 5 A. Schematic block diagram displaying major tectonic
belts and morphotectonic features of eastern Turkey. Eastern Anatolia is
squeezed (the dark arrows) between the northward advance of the Arabian
Plate, and the resisting old oceanic lithosphere under the Black Sea is
shortened, thickened, and elevated. The Pontide Range and the
Southeastern Anatolian Orogenic Belt (SAOB) (the Bitlis-Zagros
Mountains) underlain by old and rigid continental crust were thrust over
eastern Anatolia and elevated with a higher rate (the pale arrows)
because the ophiolitic mélange-accretionary complex underlying eastern
Anatolia absorbs the bulk of N-S compression. Along the trust fronts,
two narrow chains of fault-bound basins (NB and SB) were formed. The
oblique faults (major strike-slip coupled with reverse slip
displacements) give the basins their distinct parallelogram shapes and
ramp basin characters (Fig 5B). The center of eastern Anatolia responded
to the N-S compressional stress by protruded upward to form a central
high (CH). Abbreviations: EAHP; the East Anatolian High Plateau, SAOB;
the Southeast Anatolian Orogenic belt-the Bitlis-Zagros Mountains, SB,
NB, the southern and northern basins, ST and NT; the southern and
northern thrusts along with the peripheral mountains were thrust over
the young basins. Figure 5 B. Schematic structural map of
eastern Anatolia showing fault-bound chains of basins and centrally
located structural high (the black line with arrows at both ends in Fig
5 B). The broken lines correspond to the trend lines of the mountain
ranges. The short arrow between Kopdağ and Karlıova shows the direction
of the geological cross-section in Fig 5C. The thin broken vertical
lines connect the structural elements between the map and the block
diagram in fig 5A and 5B. Abbreviations: Munzur D: The Munzur Mountains,
Mt; mountains. Figure 5 C. Geological cross-section from
eastern Anatolia to the Pontide Mountains along the cross-section
direction shown in Figs 2 and 5B (modified from the cross-section
provided by Ö. Şahintürk).