Tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the northern Levant Basin (offshore Lebanon)

Abstract

Seismic interpretation constrained by a detailed assessment of the Levant paleogeography allowed subdividing the sedimentary infill of the northern Levant Basin (offshore Lebanon) in eight major seismic packages. Fifteen seismic facies have been identified with distinctive characteristics. The Levant Basin architecture is pre-determined by a Late Paleozoic/Early Mesozoic rift that led to the formation of a passive margin. Dominant aggrading carbonate platforms are observed along the Levant margin and deepwater mixed-settings (i.e., carbonates and siliciclastics) are suggested to prevail in the basin. The collision of Afro-Arabia with Eurasia led to the development of a flexural basin in the northernmost offshore Lebanon since the Late Cretaceous. A southward migration of this flexural depocenter in the Miocene is hindered by the change in the stress field along the Latakia Ridge and by the westward escape of the Anatolian Plate in Late Miocene and Pliocene times. Interplay between major geodynamic events as well as sea level fluctuations in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic induced important marginal uplifts and emersion. Sediments sourced from the erosion of Nubian siliciclastic material and from the exposed granitic Red Sea rift shoulders and Arabian Shield, were driven into the Levant Basin. The sediment sources diversity, the mechanisms of sediment transport through varied pathways (i.e., the Levant margin canyons, the Latakia region and the Nile Delta deep-sea cone) are expected to strongly impact the reservoir characteristics and prospectivity of the northern Levant Basin.