Structure and salt tectonics of Messinian evaporites in the Cilicia Basin, eastern Mediterranean

Bridge, Colleen (2004) Structure and salt tectonics of Messinian evaporites in the Cilicia Basin, eastern Mediterranean. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

During the Oligocene to late Miocene, the Cilicia Basin evolved as a foreland basin in front of the Taurus Mountains thrust front. Over time, the regional eastern Mediterranean tectonics, the continual subsidence of the Cilicia Basin and the rapid progradational loading of the evaporite unit by sediments from the northeast end of the Cilicia Basin (the Adana Basin) have resulted in the development of three tectonic domains within the basin. -- A particular type of faulting and salt tectonism characterizes each tectonic domain. The inner domain consists of salt rollers that have their distribution and lateral extent controlled by the presence of extensional growth faults at the progradational listric fault fan. The boundary domain is a zone of larger salt walls that accumulated and rose partially due to the progradational loading of evaporites, which squeezed the evaporites to the west, to the central portion of the basin. The outer domain contains a series of thrusted and non-thrusted salt anticlines and salt pillows that have arisen as a result of regional north-south contraction in the eastern Mediterranean. -- Within the Cilicia Basin it is possible to delineate four major tectonic systems each system sharing a common purpose. They are: -- A) The Basin-Forming Tectonic System - those faults responsible for the formation of the basin -- B) Intra-Salt Gravitational Gliding Tectonic System - faults within the evaporite unit which record the change from a south tilted basin to a north tilting basin -- C) Convergent Fold and Thrust Belt Tectonic System - composed of the salt structures and faults which coincide with the hypothesized presence of a basin central extensional fault near the central part of the Cilicia Basin, which acts as a buttress to southward moving sediments -- D) Supra-Salt Gravitational Gliding Tectonic System - records extension related to delta progradation from the northeastern portion of the basin and the resultant contraction at the toe of the gravitationally controlled tectonic system -- The migration of evaporites in the Cilicia Basin is dynamically linked to the tectonic elements internal to the basin but are also strongly linked to large-scale regional tectonic activity of the Eastern Mediterranean.

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