Evolving from Supra-Detachment to Rift Basin in Rolling Hinge Model of the Buyuk Menderes Graben

Two types of basins developed in the Western Anatolian extensional tectonic system during the Miocene-Quaternary interval, supra-detachment and rift basins, in the form of a rolling-hinge mechanism. In this study, stratigraphic and structural data on the presence of a rolling-hinge model in the area between Buharkent-Buldan on the northern edge of the Buyuk Menderes Graben are presented for the first time and the geological evolution of the graben is discussed. In the light of obtained field data, the Miocene-Quaternary sequences deposited on the northern edge of the Buyuk Menderes Graben were evaluated under 4 main sedimentary packages, which are separated from each other by angular and/or infrabasinal unconformities. These are the Lower-Middle Miocene (1st Package) and the Middle-Upper Miocene (2nd Package) which were deposited in the supra-detachment basin, and the PlioQuaternary 3rd and 4th packages formed in the rift basin. The structural elements that provide the basin formation and deformation of the region are the Miocene Buyuk Menderes Detachment Fault, the Pio-Quaternary Gokdere Fault, and the Holocene Buharkent Fault Segment that cuts the youngest graben basin-fill located in the most eastern part of the Buyuk Menderes Fault System