The Eastern Pontides orogenic belt in the Black Sea region of Turkey offers a critical window to plate kinematics and subduction polarity during the closure of the Paleotethys.Here we provide a brief synthesis on recent information from this belt.We infer a southward subduction for the origin of the Eastern Pontides orogenic belt and its associated late Mesozoic-Cenozoic magmatism based on clear spatial and temporal variations in Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic arc magmatism,together with the existence of a prominent south-dipping reverse fault system along the entire southern coast of the Black Sea.Our model is at variance with some recent proposals favoring a northward subduction polarity,and illustrates the importance of arc magmatism in evaluating the geodynamic milieu associated with convergent margin processes.