Miocene to recent tectonic and kinematic evolution of the Rhodes, Finike and Antalya Basins and the Anaximander Mountains, Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Barnes, Melanie C. (2015) Miocene to recent tectonic and kinematic evolution of the Rhodes, Finike and Antalya Basins and the Anaximander Mountains, Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Interpretation of ~14,000 km of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, together with 2,500 km of industry seismic reflection profiles and chronostratigraphic data from several onland exploration wells revealed a complex tectonic and sedimentary history for the northwestern segment of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Three seismic stratigraphic units are defined across the Rhodes, Finike and Antalya Basins and the greater Anaximander Mountains at the junction of the Hellenic and Cyprus Arcs: the uppermost Unit 1 (early Pliocene-Quaternary) is a strongly reflective laterally continuous package of high frequency reflections which extends from the seabed to the M-reflector. Beneath this, Unit 2 (Messinian-earliest Pliocene) is a weakly reflective package displaying complex internal architecture with weak, discontinuous and often chaotic reflections bounded at their top and base by the M- and N-reflectors, respectively. Unit 3 (pre-Messinian Miocene) is a strongly reverberatory, high reflective package of low amplitude reflections with significant lateral continuity. The structural architecture of the northwestern segment of the eastern Mediterranean Sea is characterised by two prominent phases of deformation, separated by a period of tectonic quiescence. A protracted interval of contraction in the Miocene created a prominent belt consisting of northeast- southwest striking and predominantly south-verging thrusts across the Rhodes and Finike basins, which assumed a broadly east-west strike across the Anaximander and Anaximenes Mountains. Farther to the east in the Anaxagoras Mountain and the Antalya Basin, the belt exhibits a northwest- southeast strike and is invariably southwest verging. This phase of contraction culminated in the latest Miocene and was followed after a period of tectonic quiescence by an interval of spatially-partitioned strain in the early Pliocene-Quaternary which resulted in the development of discrete domains characterized by extensional, contractional, transpressional and transtensional structures. The Anaximenes and Anaxagoras Mountains in the east and southeast exhibit contractional/transpressional deformation and form the linkage with the Florence Rise to the southeast. An arcuate and extensively faulted and folded region immediately northwest of the Anaximenes and Anaxagoras Mountains (i.e., the Sırrı Erinç Plateau) forms a 30-40 km-wide zone which separates the Anaximander Mountain in the west and northwest and the Anaximenes and Anaxagoras Mountains. The Miocene-Recent tectonic evolution of the eastern Mediterranean reflects the various phases of the closure of the Neotethys Ocean, and the stepwise collision of microplates and continental fragments. The collision and suturing of the African Microplate with the Eurasian Plate resulted in the west-directed tectonic escape of the Aegean-Anatolian Microplate during the Pliocene, which in turn, resulted in the partitioning of strain across the southern boundary between the African Plate and the Aegean-Anatolian Microplate. Mapping and interpretation clearly show that this boundary is a very wide zone of deformation extending from the southern fringes of the Mediterranean Ridge across the entire forearc region into Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey.

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