A PELAGIC PALAEOCENE SEOUENCE IN THE BİGA PENINSULA NORTHWEST TURKEY

Abstract

A sequence of pelagic limestone, calciturbidite, debris flow, greywacke, basalt and limestone blocks. up to several hundred metres across, occur west of the town of Biga in northwest Turkey. The pelagic limestones in this sequence, named as the Ballıkaya formation, comprise pelagic foraminifera of Palaeocene age. Neritic limestone of Mid-Eocene age lies unconformably over the Ballıkaya formation. The age and the sedimentary environment of the Ballıkaya formation indicate the presence of a tectonically active deep-sea environment in northwest Turkey during the Palaeocene, and constrain the main Alpide deformation in northwest Turkey to the Late Palaeocene-Early Eocene interval.