Structural architecture of the Rhodes Basin: A deep depocentre that evolved since the Pliocene at the junction of Hellenic and Cyprus Arcs, eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

Interpretation of ~ 1500 km of multi-channel seismic reflection profiles shows that the Rhodes Basin evolved in two distinct tectonic stages. A protracted Miocene convergence (episode P1) resulted in the development of a mainly SSE-verging fold–thrust belt. This period corresponds with the emplacement of the Lycian Nappes to the northeast and fold/thrust complexes on the Island of Rhodes to the west. This phase of deformation ceased in the late Miocene. The absence of evaporites in the Rhodes Basin suggests that this region must have remained above the depositional base of marine evaporite environment during the Messinian. The morphology of the M-reflector, and the architecture of the lowermost Pliocene growth strata in the central portion of the Rhodes Basin demonstrate the existence of rugged paleo-relief over the pre-existing Miocene fold–thrust belt in early Pliocene. The middle Pliocene–Quaternary phase of deformation is characterised by NE–SW sinistral transpression (P2), and rapid regional subsidence. The P2 deformation occurred in response to an actively curving Hellenic Arc and the increasing obliquity of its eastern limb, the Pliny–Strabo Trenches (or fault zones) to the convergence vector of the African Plate. During this time, the P1 structures became re-activated as transpressional faults, further facilitating the rapid subsidence. We envisage the evolution of the Rhodes Basin as the result of subsidence associated with loading of the large imbricate thrust panels that carry the western Tauride Mountains in the north. At present, the Pliny–Strabo fault zones are delineated as a NE–SW trending 30–50 km-wide zone that continue into the western segment of the Rhodes Basin. This fault zone is further correlated with the similar trending ~ 50 km-wide Burdur–Fethiye Fault zone in southwestern Turkey.