Italian contribution to the studies of Anatolian ophiolites

The “Centro di Studio per la Geologia dell’Appenino in rapporto alle Geosinclinali Mediterranee” of the National Council of Researches (c.n.r.), organized in the sixties of the 20th century, three field missions in the northern (Pontic Ranges) and southern (Taurus Ranges) orogenic belts of Turkey. The aim was to study the emplacement mechanisms, attitude and age between the Apennines ophiolitic complexes and the ones cropping out in these chains. The only obtained ages came from foraminifers from limestones linked to the ophiolites. About 45 years later other three missions were organized to better define the age of the ophiolites dating the radiolarites utilizing the radiolarian biostratigraphy and the lithological, meso- and micro-structural, petrographical, and mineral chemical features of the Paleozoic-Triassic successions in the frontal part of the Sakarya zone nappe.