Sedimentary Provenance From the Evolving Forearc‐to‐Foreland Central Sakarya Basin, Western Anatolia Reveals Multi‐Phase Intercontinental Collision

Collision between the Pontides and Anatolide-Tauride Block along İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture in Anatolia has been variously estimated from Late Cretaceous to Eocene. It remains unclear whether this age range results a protracted, multi-phase collision or differences proxies of and/or strike diachroneity. Here, we leverage Cretaceous-Eocene evolution forearc-to-foreland Central Sakarya Basin system western determine when how progressed. New detrital zircon (DZ) sandstone petrography indicate that volcanic arc was main source sediment forearc basin Cretaceous. The first appearance Pontide basement-aged DZs, concert with exhumation accretionary prism decrease regional convergence rates, indicates intercontinental initiated no later than 76 Ma. However, contractional phase does not produce advanced thick-skinned deformation partitioning until ca. 54 We propose three non-exclusive widely applicable mechanisms reconcile observed ∼20 Myr delay initial upper plate deformation: slab breakoff, relict closure north south İAES, underthrusting progressively thicker passive margin lithosphere. These highlight links coupling during continental collision.