Deep-sea tsunami deposits in the eastern Mediterranean: New evidence and depositional models

Abstract

The tsunami wave induced by the collapse of the Santorini caldera after the Bronze age (Minoan) eruption (3500 BP) produced turbidites and large volume mega-turbidites in the abyssal plains of the Ionian Sea as well as on the floor of small basins of the Mediterranean and Calabrian Ridges, characterized by the so-called ‘Cobblestone Topography’. Since the first discovery in 1978, a Holocene mud layer which has been termed ‘homogenite’ and which typically shows a graded interval at its base, has been identified and correlated in over 50 deep-sea cores recovered in the eastern Mediterranean. Four types of ‘homogenite’ can be distinguished, each related to a particular depositional setting: 1. (a) ‘Closed Cobblestone’: these are from a few decimetres to several metres thick pelagic turbidites of local provenance, exclusively found at the bottom of small-sized ponded basins of the Mediterranean and Calabrian ridges. A debris flow may be present at the base of the turbidite where the vertical relief of the basins is over 200 m. 2. (b) ‘Abyssal Plain’: a 10 to 20-m thick megaturbidite recorded in the Ionian and Sirte abyssal plains. The source area is the African continental margin, possibly the continental shelf; it can be easily identified as a transparent acoustic layer that shows recent deformation across the deformation front of the Mediterranean Ridge accretionary prism. The volume of the Minoan ‘homogenite’ in the Ionian Abyssal Plain has been calculated at a minimum of 11 km 3. 3. (c) ‘Open Cobblestone’: this type is exclusively found on the outer slope of the Mediterranean Ridge, near the deformation front. Unlike types (a) and (b), the base of the turbidite here is erosional instead of depositional. This ‘homogenite’ has been deposited in small basins, and occasionally on topographic highs of the Mediterranean Ridge by the up-slope flow of turbidity currents of African provenance that formed the abyssal plain deposit (type b). 4. (d) A fourth depositional model has been identified: homogenites present in deep anoxic basins of the Mediterranean Ridge. This setting is substantially similar to type (a), but the vertical relief of the basin is much higher (up to 800 m) and the deposition occurs in high-density anoxic brines which modify the settling rate and hence the resulting sedimentological characters.