Research interests:

I work to understand the Phanerozoic tectonic evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region, and specifically Turkey.  It is a fascinating orogenic area shaped by subductions and continental collisions.  There are also several episodes of rifting, ocean floor spreading and strike-slip faulting.  It has been an orogenic area almost continuously in the last 400 million years. We spend several months each summer in the field, mapping and collecting structural, petrographic, sedimentological and paleontological data in various regions of Turkey.  The field data is combined with petrological, geochronological and geochemical data to decipher the tectonic evolution of the region.

Over many years I have been fascinated by the geology of the high and ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks.  Their mineralogy is interesting with unusual minerals, such as jadeite, glaucophane, lawsonite, coesite, aragonite…  They also indicate deep burial and subsequent exhumation of oceanic and continental crust, and provide valuable constraints on the thermal structure of the down going lithosphere, as well as on the temporal evolution of subduction zones.

Biography:
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1973-1976, BSc., Geology, University College London, Londra, England
1976-1980, PhD., University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England
1980-1983, Geologist, Maden Tetkik ve Arama Enstitüsü, Ankara
1983-, Prof. of Geology, Istanbul Technical University, Geol. Engineering. Dept.
1998-, Prof. of Geology, Istanbul Technical University, EIES

Most important 5 publications:

Okay, A.I., Altıner, D. & Kılıç, A.M., 2015, Triassic limestone, turbidite and serpentinite – Cimmeride orogeny in the Central Pontides. Geological Magazine (in press

Nikishin, A.M., Okay, A.I., Tüysüz, O., Demirer, A., Amelin, N. & Petrov, E., 2015, The Black Sea basins structure and history: New model based on new deep penetration regional seismic data. Part 1: Basins structure and fill. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 59, 638-655.

Nikishin, A.M., Okay, A., Tüysüz, O., Demirer, A., Wannier, M., Amelin, N. & Petrov, E., 2015, The Black Sea basins structure and history: New model based on new deep penetration regional seismic data. Part 2: Tectonic history and paleogeography. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 59, 656-670.

Okay, A.I., Sunal, G., Tüysüz, O., Sherlock, S., Keskin,M. & Kylander-Clark, A.R.C., 2014, Low-pressure - high-temperature metamorphism during extension in a Jurassic magmatic arc, Central Pontides, Turkey. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 32, 49-69.

Albino, I., Cavazza, W., Zattin, M., Okay, A.I., Adamia, S. & Sadradze, N., 2014, Far-field tectonic effects of the Arabia-Eurasia collision and the inception of the North Anatolian Fault system. Geological Magazine, 151, 372–379.