A number of intra-continental alkaline volcanic sequences in NW Turkey were emplaced along localized extensional gaps within dextral strike-slip fault zones prior to the initiation of the North Anatolian Fault Zone. This study presents new palaeomagnetic and 40Ar–39Ar geochronological results from the lava flows of NW Turkey as a contribution towards understanding the Neogene–Quaternary tectonic evolution of the region and possible roles of block rotations in the kinematic history of the region. 40Ar–39Ar analyses of basalt groundmass indicate that the major volume of alkaline lavas of NW Turkey spans about 4 million years of episodic volcanic activity. Palaeomagnetic results reveal clockwise rotations as high as 73° in Thrace and 33° anticlockwise rotations in the Biga Peninsula. Movement of some of the faults delimiting the areas of lava flows and the timing of volcanic eruptions are both older than the initiation age of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, implying that the region experienced transcurrent tectonics during Late Miocene to Pliocene times and that some of the presently active faults in the region are reactivated pre-existing structures.

The southern Menderes Massif in southwest Turkey consists mainly of orthogneisses and overlying Palaeozoic–Middle Paleocene schists and marbles. The contact between the two distinct rock types is almost everywhere structural, herein named the southern Menderes shear zone: a S-facing, high-angle ductile shear zone that separates metamorphic rocks of differing grade. Although there is a consensus that the shear zone was associated with top-to-the-S–SSW shearing and is of Tertiary age, its origin and nature have been highly debated over the last decade. Some claim the contact is a thrust fault, while others have argued for an extensional shear zone. Integration of field and microstructural data (the identification of different fabrics, associated kinematics and overprinting relationships) with fission-track thermochronology and the P–T paths of the rocks above and below the shear zone, supports the conclusion that the southern Menderes shear zone is an extensional shear zone and not a thrust. The data are consistent with a model that the exhumation and cooling of the southern Menderes Massif occurred after a period of extensional deformation. Pervasive top-to-the-N–NNE high-temperature–medium-pressure ductile shear structures (D2 deformation) overprint an early HP event (D1 deformation). The subsequent top-to-the-S–SSW greenschist shear band foliation (D3 deformation) developed mostly around the orthogniess–schist contact and forms the most characteristic features of the massif. The top-to-the-N–NNE structures are attributed to the main Alpine constructional deformation that developed during back-thrusting of the Lycian nappes during the latest Palaeogene collision between the Sakarya continent and the Anatolide-Tauride platform across the Neotethyan Ocean. The top-to-the-S–SSW structures are interpreted to be the result of the exhumation of the massif during the activity of the southern Menderes shear zone. The presence of these two distinct fabrics with differing kinematics suggests that the southern Menderes shear zone operated as a top-to-the-N–NNE thrust fault during early Alpine contractional deformation but was later reactivated with an opposite sense of movement (top-to-the-S–SSW) during subsequent Oligocene–Miocene extensional collapse.

A palynological study of the uppermost Famennian section from Kowala Quarry (Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland) allowed recognition of two miospore zones: LV (Retispora lepidophyta–Apiculiretusispora verrucosa) and LN (Retispora lepidophyta–Verrucosisporites nitidus). Based on palynology and sedimentology, the black shale within the upper part of the section is identified as equivalent to the Hangenberg Black Shale, which is known globally. This black shale contains compounds characteristic of photic zone euxinia, including isorenieratane and its derivatives. Such compounds are absent in the organic-poor marls and shales occurring below the LN Zone, and are present only as traces in the layers just above the black shale, indicating fluctuations in the oxygen minimum zone during uppermost Famennian sedimentation. Palynofacies show high amounts of amorphous organic matter and prasinophyte concentrations in the black shale, and a subsequent significant decrease of amorphous organic matter concomitant with a rapid increase of terrestrial input (mainly miospores with common tetrads) in the layers above the black shale. This supports the relatively rapid change in the taxonomic composition of phytoplankton caused by fluctuations of the chemocline. The whole succession corresponds to one sea-level rise and fall. The presence of high concentrations of peri-condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and large amounts of small charcoal particles at the Hangenberg event horizon indicate the occurrence of wildfires. Such observations suggest that atmospheric O22 levels had exceeded the critical threshold of 13 %, above which wildfires may occur, by latest Famennian time.

Distortion of the vertebral column in fossils can be used for the estimation of two-dimensional finite strain by a simple geometrical technique, namely the Wellman method. We demonstrate application of the Wellman method to the distorted vertebral columns of a reptile and a stem-chordate, and use the results to restore the undistorted fossil shapes by a computer graphic method. The Wellman method is particularly efficient in situations where independent evidence for the principal strain directions, or undistorted forms, are lacking. The method is purely geometrical, easy to use, and rapid. It involves relatively low error, and works even when only a small segment of the distorted vertebral column is preserved.

In NW Turkey, the medium-grade Kemer micaschists of the Biga Peninsula record NE-directed extension related to ductile to brittle–ductile shearing during the Palaeogene period: a lower limit for their exhumation is given by the Late Maastrichtian age of the HP–LT metamorphism of a similar nearby area (Çamlıca micaschists); an upper limit is given by the Early Eocene intrusion age of the post-kinematic Karabiga granitoid, dated as 52.7 ± 1.9 Ma using the U–Pb LA–ICP–MS method on xenotime. Correlations with the northeasterly Rhodope region and integration into the geodynamic regional frame indicate that the Kemer micaschists experienced an extensional deformation connected to a collisional context in latest Cretaceous–early Tertiary times. The Kemer micaschists therefore represent a new area (the first in Turkey), which suffered synorogenic extension in the north Aegean domain at the very beginning of Tertiary times.

Field and petrological studies of the Highland Border Ophiolite demonstrate that it was obducted onto the Neoproterozoic–Ordovician rocks of the Dalradian block, and not emplaced against them by post-orogenic strike-slip movement. It was welded onto the upper, southward-younging limb of the already recumbent Tay Nappe (D1), and deformed by the Downbend Antiform (D4). However, its emplacement was not accompanied by significant internal deformation of the Dalradian block. As the ophiolite is correlated with those at Clew Bay, Tyrone and Shetland, this result will necessitate complete revision of the current model for basin closure on the southeastern margin of Laurentia.

We present an initial report of a well-preserved and relatively diverse Gondwanan plant assemblage from Bahía Laura Group, Chon Aike Formation strata of the Estancia Flecha Negra area, central-western region of the Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz province, Patagonia, Argentina. The locality contains the first richly fossiliferous chert with a diverse and well-preserved plant assemblage reported from the Mesozoic which is demonstrably associated with hot spring activity. A compression flora and petrified forest contained in associated clastic and volcaniclastic environments provide an indication of regional plant diversity during this as yet poorly represented stratigraphic interval.