Yildirim Dilek

My research interests include structure, petrology and geochemistry of ophiolites in Albania, California, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Oman, Turkey, Norway, California, China, Tibet, and peri-Caribbean; mid- ocean ridge tectonics and ocean crust generation in the MARK area (Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and the Costa Rica Rift (Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean); microbial alteration of oceanic lavas; active margin and strike-slip tectonics of the Caribbean region; tectonics of the Alpine-Himalayan, Cordilleran, Northern Appalachian, and Caledonian orogenic belts; Cenozoic tectonics and volcanism of Southern Tibet; post-collisional magmatism in the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt; geomorphology and neotectonics of continental collision zones (Caucasus Mountains, Republic of Georgia and Azerbaijan); Mesozoic tectonics and magmatism in East-SE China and Continental Dynamics of East Asia; extensional tectonics, core complex formation and magmatism in the Aegean Province (Greece and Turkey); Paleozoic tectonics of the Tarim Basin and the Tianshan orogenic belt, China; Precambrian tectonics of the Arabian-Nubian Shield (Egypt, Sudan and Saudi Arabia), Isua greenstone belt (Greenland), and Barberton greenstone belt (South Africa); tectonic evolution of the Chilean Patagonia and the Southern Andes; Archean Earth and evolution of life; rivers, dams and environmental issues; geohazards and their impact on nations and civilizations.

Possible Thesis/Dissertation Topics

• Passive margin development, rift-drift tectonics and sedimentary basin evolution in Eastern Europe and Anatolia (involves fieldwork in Greece, Albania, and/or Turkey).
• Structure, tectonics and geomorphology of the Northern Owens Valley and Evolution of the Great Basin-Sierra Nevada Boundary (involves fieldwork in Eastern California).
• Structure, geochemistry and tectonics of ancient oceanic crust in arc-trench rollback systems (involves field work in Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Iran and/or Chile).
• Structure, geochemistry, geochronology and tectonics of orogenic vs. anorogenic Cenozoic magmatism (involves fieldwork on Aegean Islands, in Western Turkey, Azerbaijan, and/or Iran).
• Structure, sedimentology, and tectonics of melanges (involves fieldwork in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and/or Turkey).

Current/Recent Graduate Student Research

• Gozde Alpaslan IM.S. 2017) Seafloor Spreading Structure, Geochronology and Tectonic Evolution of the Kure Ophiolite, Turkey:  A Continental Backarc Basin Oceanic Lithosphere in Southern Eurasia
• Eren Deniz Abus (M.S. 2016) 3D Structural and Geophysical Investigation of the Vlore-Elbasan Tectonic Lineament in the Albanide Orogenic Belt, Albania
• Elif Altikulac (M.S. 2015) Structure and Tectonic Evolution of the Caldag High and the Golmarmara Basin in the Western Gediz Graben, Western Anatolia
• Structural Architecture of the Western Termination of the Gediz Graben in Aegean Extensional Province, Western Anatolia.

Selected Publications

Dong, G., Dilek, Y., Mo, X.-X., Zhao, Z., Zhu, D.-C., Dong, P.S., Chang, Z.Q. and Fang, Y.F., (2022), Geochemical and geochronological transects across the Gangdese Magmatic Belt of Southern Tibet: New constraints on slab–controlled, diachronous granitoid magmatism along the southern edge of Eurasia during the Paleogene: Geological Society of America Bulletin, in revision.

*Engin, C and Dilek, Y, (2022), Structural architecture of the Cenozoic Ulukisla sedimentary basin, south-central Turkey, within the framework of the Eastern Mediterranean geodynamics: Basin Research (in final revision).

Turk, S and Dilek, Y., (2022) Subsurface structure and tectonics of the modern Gediz Graben (Western Anatolia) based on seismic and well-log data: Journal of Structural Geology, (in preparation).

Dilek, Y. and Furnes, H., (2022), Structure, geochronology and tectonics of the Mesozoic ophiolites in the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt: Divergent and convergent margin evolution of Neotethys through time. Earth-Science Reviews, (in preparation).

Puga, E., Dilek, Y., Nieto, J.M., (2022), Geochronology, geochemistry and structure of the Jurassic Betic Ophiolites, SE Iberian Peninsula: Reconstruction of the opening of the Central Atlantic and Western Tethys Oceans: Earth–Science Reviews, invited paper.

Gardideh, S., Ghasemi, H., Dilek, Y., Raith, J.G., Santos, J.F., Shi, Y., and Sadeghian, M., (2022), Neogene adakitic magmatism in the Quchan-Esfarayen magmatic belt, NE Iran: Cenozoic chemical geodynamics of the Sabzevar Ocean Basin: Lithos, (in preparation).

Postdoctoral Research Associates Mentored

• Dr. Yusuf K. Kadioglue, University of Ankara-Turkey, Fulbright Research Fellow, the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), January - October 2002.
• Dr. Nikolay Georgive Bonev, Sofia University of St. Kliment Ohridski-Bulgarie, Fulbright Research Fellow, The Council for the International Exhange of Scholars (CIES), August 2008 - January 2009.
• Dr. Andrea Festa, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universita degli Studi di Torino, Torino, ITALY, May - October 2009.
• Dr. Yener Eyuboglu, Gumushane Unviersity, Department of Geology, Gumushane, TURKEY, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Post-Doctoral Fellowship Abroad, September 2009 - July 2010.
• Dr. Lui Fei, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Continental Dynamics and Tectonics, Geological Survey of China, Beijing, CHINA, Visiting Scholar and Post-Doctoral Researcher, 2016-2017.

Awards and Honors

2018 - Elected Honorary Fellow, The Geological Society of London, for being a strong advocate of interdisciplinary and international science, a major contributor to the global geoscience community, and serving as a science ambassador around the globe.

2016 - International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Best Paper Award of EPISODES for the period of 2012-2016, for the article: “Pre-Alpine Extensional Tectonics of a Peridotite-Localized Oceanic Core Complex in the Late Jurassic, High-Pressure Monviso ophiolite (Western Alps)” with Drs Andrea Festa, Gianni Balestro and Paola Tartarotti.

2015 - Research Fellowship, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.

2009 - Distinguished Career Award of the Geological Society of America

Teaching Interests

• GLG 322 - Structural Geology
• GLG 492/592 - Global Tectonics
• GLG 497 - Trends and Topics in Geosciences
• GLG 499C - Tectonics and Geomorphology of Eastern California
• GLG 661 - Continental Mantle Dynamics

Education

Ph.D., Geology, University of California, Davis (1989)
Structural Geology, Geochemistry & Tectonics.

M.S., Geology, University of California, Davis (1985)
Structural Geology, Geochemistry & Tectonics.

B.Sc. and M.Sc., University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey (1980)
Structural Geology, Regional Geology & Tectonics.