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Abstract. To quantitatively reconstruct the kinematic evolution of Central and Eastern Anatolia within the framework of Neotethyan subduction accommodating Africa-Eurasia convergence, we paleomagnetically assess the timing and amount of vertical axis rotations across the Ulukışla and Sivas regions. We show paleomagnetic results from ∼ 30 localities identifying a coherent rotation of a SE Anatolian rotating block comprised of the southern Kırşehir Block, the Ulukışla Basin, the Central and Eastern Taurides, and the southern part of the Sivas Basin. Using our new and published results, we compute an apparent polar wander path (APWP) for this block since the Late Cretaceous, showing that it experienced a ∼ 30-35 • counterclockwise vertical axis rotation since the Oligocene time relative to Eurasia. Sediments in the northern Sivas region show clockwise rotations. We use the rotation patterns together with known fault zones to argue that the counterclockwise-rotating domain of south-central Anatolia was bounded by the Savcılı Thrust Zone and Deliler-Tecer Fault Zone in the north and by the African-Arabian trench in the south, the western boundary of which is poorly constrained and requires future study. Our new paleomagnetic constraints provide a key ingredient for future kinematic restorations of the Anatolian tectonic collage.

The age and paleoenvironmental record of lacustrine deposits in the Aktoprak basin of south-central Turkey provides information about the evolution of topography, including the timing of development of an orographic rain shadow caused by uplift of the mountain ranges fringing the Central Anatolian Plateau. New magnetostratigraphy-based age estimates, in combination with existing biostratigraphic ages, suggest that the partially remagnetized Kurtulmuş Tepe section of the basin is Chattian (Upper Oligocene). The mean carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios (d 18 O5 24.6 6 2.0 &, d 13 C5 24.9 6 1.1&) are largely constant through the section and indicative of a subtropical, open freshwater lake. These isotopic values are also similar to those of the Chattian Mut basin to the south, on the Mediterranean side of the modern orographic barrier (Tauride Mountains), and indicate absence of an orographic barrier during Late Oligocene basin deposition. Post-depositional partial remagnetization occurred after tilting of the basin sequence and was mineralogically controlled, affecting grey, carbonate-rich rocks (average %CaCO 3 5 82), whereas interlayered pink carbonate-poor rocks (average %CaCO 3 5 38) carry a primary, pretilt magnetization. The pink rocks are rich in clay minerals that may have reduced the permeability of these rocks that carry a primary magnetization, concentrating basinal fluid flow in the carbonate-rich grey layers and leading to the removal and reprecipitation of magnetic minerals. The normal and reverse polarities recorded by the remagnetized rocks suggest that remagnetization occurred over a protracted period of time.

The Aegean-west Anatolian orocline formed due to Neogene opposite rotations of its western and eastern limbs during opening of the Aegean back-arc basin. Stretching lineations in exhumed metamorphic complexes in this basin mimic the regional vertical-axis rotation patterns and suggest that the oppositely rotating domains are sharply bounded along a Mid-Cycladic lineament, the tectonic nature of which is enigmatic. Some have proposed this lineament to be an extensional fault accommodating orogen-parallel extension, while others have considered it to be a transform fault. The island of Paros hosts the only exposure of the E-to NE-trending lineations characterizing the NW Cyclades and the N-trending lineations of the SE Cyclades. Here, we show new paleomagnetic results from isotropic, ca. 16 Ma granitoids that intruded both domains and demonstrate that the trend difference resulted from post-16 Ma ~90° clockwise and 10° counterclockwise rotation of the NW and SE blocks, respectively. We interpret the semiductile to brittle, low-angle, SE-dipping Elitas shear zone that accommodated this rotation difference to reflect the Mid-Cycladic lineament. We conclude a two-stage exhumation history for Paros that is consistent with regional Aegean reconstructions. Between ca. 23 and 16 Ma, the metamorphic rocks of Paros were exhumed from amphibolite-facies to greenschist-facies conditions along a top-to-theN detachment. The Elitas shear zone then started to exhume the northwestern, clockwiserotating domain from below the southeastern, counterclockwise rotating domain since 16 Ma. From this, we infer that the Mid-Cycladic lineament is an extensional shear zone, consistent with geometric predictions that Aegean oroclinal bending was accommodated by orogennormal and orogen-parallel extension.