Seismic stratigraphy, structure and tectonic evolution of the Levantine Basin, offshore Israel

Abstract

Abstract Multi-channel seismic reflection data and borehole information were used to study the structure and stratigraphy of the Levantine basin, offshore Israel. A new, 2D seismic survey that covers the southeastern Mediterranean Sea from the Israeli coast to the Eratosthenes Seamount shows the entire Phanerozoic sedimentary fill down to a depth of 14–16 km. The basin-fill is subdivided into six seismo-stratigraphic units interpreted as low-order, major depositional cycles (supersequences A-F). Correlation and mapping of these units allowed an investigation of the geological history of the basin and the analysis of two important tectonic phases: Neotethyan rifting, and Syrian Arc inversion and contraction. The Neotethyan rifting phase is recorded by the strata of supersequences A and B. Faulting took place during the Anisian (Mid-Triassic), continued through the Liassic and ceased during the Mid-Jurassic. The basin opened in a NW-SE direction, between the Eratosthenes Seamount and the Levant margin of the Arabian Massif, at an angle of about 30° to the present-day shoreline. No indications for sea-floor spreading were found in the present study. Late Triassic to Liassic volcanic rocks of assumed intraplate origin accumulated in the northeastern part of the basin. It is hypothesized that the basin originated as an intracontinental rift associated with the nucleation of an oceanic spreading centre, but reached only an early magmatic phase. An inversion and contraction phase, associated with closing of the Neotethyan ocean system, is recorded by supersequences C and D. The contractional structures of the Syrian Arc extend in a wide and elevated fold belt along the eastern edge of the deep-marine basin. These structures were formed by the inversion of pre-existing normal faults. The folding occurred in several pulses starting in the Senonian and ending in the Miocene. The western limit of the main fold belt, located 50–70 km west of the coastline, is defined by a transition in crustal properties. Supersequences E and F record the Late Cenozoic history of the basin. A Messinian, evaporitic basin was limited to the east by the elevated and uplifted Syrian Arc fold belt composed of older, Oligocene to Mid-Miocene strata. During highstand episodes, the Messinian evaporites were deposited on the entire slope and within canyons incised into the shelf. High sedimentation rates of Nilotic and locally derived sediments during the Plio-Pleistocene resulted in the development of extensive submarine deltas and basinward progradation of the Levant shelf break.