Regional implications of structural and eustatic controls in the evolution of submarine fans: an example from the Miocene Adana Basin, southern Turkey

Abstract

Deep-sea fan development is generally thought to be controlled by a combination of changes in sea level, the shape and size of the basin in which the fans are growing, and the nature of the source area. The Early Miocene evolution of the eastern Mediterranean involved significant accumulation of deep-water clastic sediment in which the importance of each of these controlling factors can be evaluated. The deep-water clastic system located in the Adana Basin has been studied in detail. Two contemporaneous, small, radial, sand-rich submarine fans (one in the west and one in the east) exhibiting different scales, fan types and styles of deposition have been recognized within the Cingöz turbidite sequence of the northern Adana Basin in southern Turkey. Sedimentological studies indicate that the fans were controlled externally by tectonics and relative eustatic sea-level fall during late Serravallian time, in combination with the nature of the source area to the north. The internal architectural stacking patterns and external geometry of the two fan systems were strongly affected by the interaction of local tectonics and turbidity current pathways, including a major topographic confinement to the southeast that forced a vertical aggradation of the eastern fan and an east–west elongation of the western fan. This paper describes a classic example of a well-exposed deep-water clastic system where (1) tectonically driven sea-floor topography, (2) syn-sedimentary tectonism and (3) eustatic rise in sea level, are the primary controls on its development.