Sedimentary characteristics of early Miocene platform deposits in the Neogene Adana Basin, southern Turkey

Abstract

We report a detailed description of the sedimentological characteristics of the Early Miocene platform deposits to contributetowards the understanding of the evolution of the Neogene Adana Basin (southern Anatolia). Several detailed sedimentological logswere measured and interpreted from the platform deposits (Kaplankaya, Karaisalı, and turbiditic Cingöz formations) of the Adana Basin.The depositional evolution of the Adana Basin began during the Early Miocene as a foreland basin. The basin fill is both marine andnonmarine in character, which shows a gradual transition at the northern margin of the basin from one into another. Formation of thebasin commenced by a major marine transgression during the Early Miocene. The pre-Miocene sedimentation area was a large platformwith an adjacent depression area, which greatly affected the development of Miocene sedimentation after the Aquitanian-Burdigaliantransgression. Prior to this transgression, the paleotopography was filled by terrestrial Gildirli deposits, and after transgression, shallowplatform sediments of Kaplankaya-Karaisalı formations, and Cingöz and Güvenç formations were deposited in the slightly deeperparts of the basin. The Early Miocene Kaplankaya and Karaisalı formations conformably overlie the Gildirli Formation. However, bothformations are seen resting with angular unconformity on the tilted Oligocene age Karsantı Basin sediments. Early Miocene sedimentswere developed due to the transgression towards the north. In the areas close to the shore, the northerly sourced littoral-brackish anddeltaic Kaplankaya Formation and the more marine reefal Karaisalı Formation were deposited. Stratigraphical, sedimentological, andpaleontological evidence has proven that the platform sediments of the basin were deposited during the Aquitanian-Burdigalian. Whilethe Karaisalı Formation is represented by reef sediments, the base of Kaplankaya is characterized by alluvial fan and distributary mouthbar deposits with intermittent fluvial and marine conditions. These pass upward into prodelta clayey facies that consist of shallow marinefossils. The Burdigalian-Serravalian turbiditic Cingöz Formation cuts the Kaplankaya Formation with a channelized erosive contact.