Evolution of and factors controlling Eocene sedimentation in the Darende-Balaban Basin, Malatya (Eastern Turkey)

Collision of the Arabian and Anatolian plates affected evolution of basins located along the southern flank of the Anatolian Plate. The Darende-Balaban foreland basin is one such basin - a basin filled with Upper Cretaceous and Eocene sediments, accumulated unconformably and transgressively above ophiolitic and carbonate basement rocks. This basin is locally surrounded, to the north and south, by Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous structural highs created by tectonic elements during the collision of Arabia and Anatolia. This paper aims to describe the factors controlling and evolution of the Eocene sedimentation in the Darende-Balaban basin. The basin fill comprises two distinct sequences separated by an angular unconformity: (1) the Upper Cretaceous continental to shallow-marine sediments that fall into three formations, namely reefal carbonates of the Tohma formation, the continental to shallow-marine Ulupinar formation and shallow-marine calcarenites of the Kirankaya formation. In the southern and northern parts of the basin, there are distinct lateral and vertical lithological variations in each formation; (2) Lutetian shoreline to shallow-marine successions of the Korgantepe formation, shallow-marine to offshore successions of the Yenice formation, and reefal carbonates of the Asartepe formation. The basin fill ends with the Priabonian shallow-marine Darende formation. Several sedimentological sections were measured and rock samples were collected for petrographic and palaeontological studies to examine facies distribution, lithological and sedimentological changes in the Eocene units, and to obtain precise dates for the sedimentary succession. The results suggest that Eocene sedimentation in the Darende-Balaban foreland basin was highly affected externally by the north-south compressional regime as a consequence of collision between the Anatolian and Arabian plates which commenced just after the Late Cretaceous and continued until the Eocene. The basin fill was also affected internally by the sedimentary factors or processes, such as provenance, basin topography, sedimentary input and climate.