Abstract
This study investigates the interplay of evolving tectonic and submarine sedimentation processes in the northwest Aegean Sea using marine multichannel seismic profiles. We identify an extensive basin developing in the Thermaikos Gulf inner shelf, outer shelf, and slope leading to the 1500 m deep West North Aegean Trough (NAT). We establish the unconformable extent of Eocene and Oligocene sequences on the upper shelf and trace their continuation in the deeper shelf and slope of Thermaikos Gulf. The start of the Miocene and Middle Miocene developed below the well-established Messinian bounding reflectors that are mostly erosional. Important lateral variations are observed within the Messinian sequence, which is up to 0.8 s thick. Messinian prograding clinoforms are identified on the Thermaikos Gulf shelf and southeast of Chalkidiki, and a zone of irregular reflectors is attributed to the Messinian salt layer. The transpressional deformation of the Messinian in the southwestern margin constrains the timing of westward progradation of the North Anatolian Fault during Messinian. The Pliocene-Quaternary sediments are 0.6–1.8 s thick, showing the overwhelming effect of tectonics on sedimentation plus the northwards Quaternary activation at the Thermaikos apron.
Highlights
In the Aegean Sea, Cenozoic crustal extension is generally viewed as a result of escape tectonics, with the Aegean microplate pushed westward by Anatolia due to the impact of the Arabian indentor and Eurasia [1]
The North Aegean Sea is today dominated by the overwhelming tectonics of the North Aegean Trough
Its margin appears to have hosted important geotectonic events that culminated in thick autochthonous sedimentary sequences since the Paleogene, as established in this study on the basis of deep penetrating seismic profiles
Summary
In the Aegean Sea, Cenozoic crustal extension is generally viewed as a result of escape tectonics, with the Aegean microplate pushed westward by Anatolia due to the impact of the Arabian indentor and Eurasia [1]. Eurasia led to crustal thickening and subsequent westward gravitational collapse and escape of Anatolia, leading to the formation of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF), which has progressively propagated, reaching the North Aegean at around 5 Ma [2,3,4]. The closure of the Vardar and Pindos Oceans produced an area of thickened continental crust and led to thrust migration westward through the external Hellenides. This Mesohellenic orogenesis [7] established the drastic sedimentation centers of the Mesohellenic basin. Dinter [8] has argued that similar Middle–
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