Elemental and C, O and Mg isotope geochemistry of middle-late Miocene carbonates from the Tuz Golu Basin (Central Anatolia, Turkey): Evidence for Mediterranean incursions

The Tuz Golu basin, the largest of the Central Anatolian Neogene basins, is a NW-SE trending fault-controlled depression and includes many subbasins, such as the Ere.gli, Ulukisla and Bor subbasins. In the basin, economically important evaporite deposits consisting mostly of halite, gypsum/anhydrite, glauberite and carbonates formed in the middle-late Miocene. The mineralogical and chemical properties and C, O and Mg isotopic compositions of the carbonate minerals that precipitated simultaneously with the other evaporite minerals were investigated using samples from boreholes to determine the precipitation conditions and paleoenvironment of the deposits.