Deformation history of the high‐pressure Lycian Nappes and implications for tectonic evolution of SW Turkey

<jats:p>In southwestern Turkey, the Lycian nappe complex which overlies the autochthonous Menderes Massif and Bey Dağ platform, consists from base to top of metasediments, a mélange unit and an ophiolitic sequence. Fresh Fe‐Mg‐carpholite occurrence in the metasediments attests to a high‐pressure low‐temperature metamorphic event. We report the distribution of Fe‐Mg‐carpholite and its breakdown products (e.g., pyrophyllite and chloritoid) on the Bodrum peninsula, south of the Menderes crystalline massif. The distribution of Fe‐Mg‐carpholite and its relics shows that the low‐grade high‐pressure metamorphism affected a widespread area in the lower units of the Lycian Nappes. Analysis of the ductile deformation in HP‐LT metasediments indicates shear senses top‐to‐the‐northeast to top‐to‐the‐east. Most of this deformation is contemporaneous with the retrogression of high‐pressure low‐temperature parageneses and is therefore coeval with exhumation from a depth of about 30 km. At the top of the Menderes Massif “cover series,” close to the contact with the Lycian Nappes, similar eastward displacements are observed and trajectories of the stretching lineations are continuous from the Lycian Nappes to the Menderes Massif across the contact. These observed movements are incompatible with the southward transport of the Lycian Nappes over the Menderes Massif. We discuss the regional tectonic implications and conclude that the Lycian Nappes and the southernmost part of the Menderes Massif were exhumed in two stages: (1) Eocene (?) top‐to‐the‐NE shear (syn‐orogenic extension?), (2) Miocene deformation contemporaneous with the Aegean extension.</jats:p>