Structural framework and deformation history of the western Cyprus Arc

An extensive grid of high-resolution multichannel seismic reflection profiles, complemented with wider-spaced deep-penetrating industry seismic profiles revealed that the pre-Messinian Miocene structural architecture of the Antalya Basin and its southwestern extension into the Florence Rise is characterized by a very prominent broadly northwest-southeast-striking and largely southwest-verging fold thrust belt, with occasional northeast verging backthrusts. During the Messinian a number of prominent thrusts remained active; however, numerous thrusts which were active during the pre-Messinian Miocene became inactive. During the uppermost Messinian Quaternary the stain was partitioned into five broadly northwest-southeast trending morphotectonic domains, each delineated by a distinctive seafloor morphology: (a) a domain across the inner and western Antalya Basin is dominated by extensional faults, (b) a domain immediately south of the extensional faults, is characterized by contractional structures, (c) a halokinetic zone in southwestern Antalya Basin north of the foothills of the Anaxagoras Mountain is characterized by numerous positive flower structures beneath a corrugated seafloor, (d) a domain characterized by fluid escape structures immediately southeast of the halokinetic zone and (e) a domain across the crestal portion of the Florence Rise is dominated by prominent inversion structures. Detailed mapping documented that several of these tectonic domains can be readily correlated with previously mapped tectonic elements in the eastern Mediterranean as well as structures mapped across the adjacent landmass. The change from ubiquitous pre-Messinian Miocene contraction to partitioned strain of the latest Messinian Quaternary is likely related to the collision of the Eratosthenes with Cyprus, and the resultant jostling of the tectonic blocks.