A paleolatitude reconstruction of the South Armenian Block (Lesser Caucasus) for the Late Cretaceous : Constraints on the Tethyan realm

The continental South Armenian Block – part of the Anatolide–Tauride South Armenian microplate – of Gondwana origin rifted from the African margin after the Triassic and collided with the Eurasian margin after the Late Cretaceous. During the Late Cretaceous, two northward dipping subduction zones were simultaneously active in the northern Neo-Tethys between the South Armenian Block in the south and the Eurasian margin in the north: oceanic subduction took place below the continental Eurasian margin and intra-oceanic subduction resulted in ophiolite obduction onto the South Armenian Block in the Late Cretaceous.