Miocene to recent stratigraphy, structural architecture and tectonic evolution of the Antalya basin, eastern Mediterranean sea

The Miocene-Recent structural and sedimentary evolution of the Antalya Basin south of Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean Sea is delineated using detailed interpretation of -900 km of high-resolution multi-channel seismic reflection profiles. Three seismic stratigraphie units are identified. Unit 1 is Pliocene-Quaternary in age and is characterized by a strongly reflective acoustic package which shows considerable lateral continuity. -- Unit 2 consists of an acoustically transparent package with few coherent reflectors: it represents the Messinian evaporite succession. Unit 3 is early-late Miocene but pre-Messinian in age and is defined by an acoustically reverberatory package which shows moderate lateral continuity. -- Detailed interpretation and mapping of the seismic reflection profiles showed that the structural architecture of the Antalya Basin is characterized by 4-5 northwest-southeast trending anticline-syncline pairs. The anticlines are invariably cored by north-dipping, south-verging thrusts, thus representing ramp anticlines with the synclines between thrust culminations representing piggy-back basins. Temporal and spatial relationship of these large-scale structures and the stratigraphy and growth strata architecture of Units 1-3 successions clearly document a two-phase history for the Miocene to Recent kinematic evolution of the Antalya Basin. The first phase of deformation occurred in the Miocene and affected the entire Antalya Basin. It involves the northwest-trending, southwest-directed fold-thrust structures in Unit 3. A fundamental change in the kinematic regime occurred during the transition from the late Miocene to early Pliocene, when the strain was strongly partitioned both temporally and geographically. The second phase of deformation occurred in the early-Pliocene to Recent. Structures associated with this phase of deformation consist of (1) northwest-trending listric extensional faults involving the Pliocene-Quaternary succession as well as the similarly trending transtensional faults involving the Miocene to Pliocene-Quaternary successions, which occupy the northern portion of the study area extending from the present-day shoreline to the innermost portion of the deep Antalya Basin, (2) re-activated Miocene thrusts involving the Pliocene-Quaternary successions, which occupy the northern and central segments of the Antalya Basin, and (3) northwest-trending transpressional structures involving the Miocene to Pliocene-Quaternary successions, which occupy the southern segment of the deep Antalya Basin. The northern extensional/transtensional faults exhibit concurrent activity with the re-activated Miocene thrusts of the imbricate fold-thrust belt. These faults are interpreted to develop in relation to the westward displacement of the Tauride block as the eastern segment of the Aegean-Anatolian Microplate initiated its westward escape in the latest Miocene to early Pliocene, which continued during the Pliocene-Quaternary and still persists today. By contrast, the southern transpressional fault activity is interpreted to be related to the choking of the subduction along the Cyprus Arc as a result of the collision of the Eratosthenes Seamount with Cyprus during the early Pliocene to Recent