The Neogene evolution of the Outer Latakia Basin and its extension into the Eastern Mesaoria Basin (Cyprus), Eastern Mediterranean

The Neogene stratigraphic and structural evolution of the eastern Mesaoria Basin is studied using multi-channel seismic reflection profiles from the eastern marine extension of the basin into the Outer Latakia Basin. The region includes three major tectonic elements: Troodos Larnaka culmination, Kyrenia fold/thrust belt and the intervening Mesaoria and Outer Latakia Basins. The Troodos Larnaka culmination is a large ophiolite-cored ramp anticline developed above a deep-seated S-verging thrust, complemented by a footwall imbricate thrust fan system extending into the Cyprus Basin. The Outer Latakia Basin is a large piggy-back basin, carried on the northern flank of the Troodos Larnaka culmination. The Kyrenia fold/thrust belt is developed as a S-verging trailing imbricate fan system. These three tectonic elements form part of a crustal-scale, S-directed, linked thrust system, which has a protracted tectonic history with major pulses of contraction in the Eo-Oligocene, the late Miocene and the middle Plio-Quaternary. This system extends southward well into the Cyprus Basin and probably links with the subduction zone between the African plate and the Anatolian microplate. Patterns of thrust activity in this linked thrust system exclude models of S-migration of the plate boundary from mid Tertiary to Recent. Instead, the upper plate is viewed as a broad zone of diffuse convergence, distributed across a number of active fold/thrust zones.