ARCHITECTURE OF LATE OROGENIC QUATERNARY BASINS IN NORTHEASTERN MEDITERRANEAN-SEA

In the northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Pliocene to Quaternary depocentres have formed in extensional basins bounded by splays of the East Anatolian Transform Fault. This tectonic regime is superimposed on a Miocene and older back-arc environment, that experienced late Miocene compression along the Misis-Kyrenia thrust, which now lies in the middle of the extensional zone. The thrust zone is now represented by a narrow horst that appears to be bounded by strike-slip faults. Pliocene-Quaternary extension took place on listric fault fans that are orthogonal to the bounding transform splays and sole at a Messinian evaporite horizon, and on some deeper-soling listric faults parallel to and near the bounding faults. The rapid extension has resulted in progressive landward migration of paleoshorelines and low depositional gradients. Glacio-eustatic fluctuations in shoreline positions strongly influenced sediment distribution. Most sediment dispersion was from deltaic plumes, with turbidites of minor significance. Depocentres landward of the maximum seaward extent of paleoshorelines were formed almost entirely by tectonic subsidence. Minor deep-water depocentres, controlled by halokinesis, accumulated mud turbidites during extreme low-stands of sea-level.