Miocene to recent stratigraphy, structural architecture and tectonic evolution of the Adana Basin, Southern Turkey

The Adana Basin of southeastern Turkey lies above the late Cretaceous-Eocene ophiolithic suture of the Afro-Arabian and Euro-Asian plates. The basin evolved in the Miocene and the sedimentary succession (0-6 km) records a complex tectono-stratigraphic history. Producing oilfields are present within the basin but the stratigraphic, sedimentological and structural controls on the fields have remained ambiguous. Advances in data accessibility and data quality have provided a new opportunity to re-examine the evolution of the basin in a modern context. -- The Miocene to Recent succession is divided into three seismic megasequences by the three seismic unconformities. The unconformities include: B1, a progressively transgressed Type II sequence boundary that spans the Burdigalian-Serravalian interval, B2, a Type I sequence boundary that marks the onset of a basin wide forced regression in the Tortonian and B3 a laterally restricted transgressive sequence boundary that marks the maximum extent of Mediterranean desiccation and evaporite deposition in the basin. -- Rapid lateral variations in sedimentary facies, complex growth stratal architectures and progressively-rotated local syntectonic unconformities are identified near buried thrust culminations within the Miocene succession. Three distinct structural provinces occur within the basin and include: 1) an E-W trending, buried southward-propagating growth fault-bend fold and thrust belt with associated carbonate reef buildups, 2) a prominent NNE-SSW trending basin-bounding culmination wall and local reverse faults that delimit the eastern flank of the basin, and 3) salt structures and an extensional listric fault fan that soles into salt in the southwest. -- The Adana Basin documents a complex tectono-stratigraphic history during the Miocene. This is indicated by the highly variable nature of the Micoene sedimentology, stratigraphy and structural geology in space and time. Previous authors have proposed that the Miocene evolution of the Adana Basin resulted from periods of sea level variation, extensional and/or transtensional tectonism and intermittent periods of quiescence throughout the Miocene. In light of newly identified complex Miocene growth stratal architectures at buried thrust culminations, radical shifts in sedimentation style during the lower to late Miocene appear to have been largely controlled by compressional tectonics. The basin experienced an early to middle Miocene phase of south-directed thrusting, carbonate reef growth and subsequent drowning with continued basinward movement. The structural reorganization that led to the development of a proto-Kozan-Ecemis transtensional fault system during the late Serravalian marks the early docking of Arabia. Continued plate collision led to the development of a contractional culmination wall, associated with uplift of the Misis Mountains, that delimits the eastern basin edge. This uplift, in conjunction with a eustatic sea level fall led to a forced regression that climaxed in the Messinian with the desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea, and the precipitation of evaporates in basinal lows. Later, the sea returned to the southern parts of the basin, where delta progradation, delta toe collapse, and salt tectonics dominate the latest Miocene to Recent interval