Miocene-Pliocene Transition in the Southern Cyprus Basins: The Sedimentary Expression of Regional Tectonic Events

F. Orzag-Sperber, Jean Marie Rouchy

In the southern part of Cyprus, a Maastrichtian-Pleistocene sedimentary area fringes Troodos Mountain, a fragment of an ancient crust. During the Neogene, three basins formed in this area: Polemi, Pissouri, and Psematismenos. A deep marine condition has prevailed since the Maastrichtian. During the Paleocene and early Miocene, the sea gradually became shallower until the Messinian, where the most spectacular sedimentary event concerns the deposition of evaporites contemporaneous with other Mediterranean evaporites. Some sedimentary phenomena express the tectonic instability during the upper Miocene. A well-known tectonic event affecting the east Mediterranean region generally referred to as "the" Miocene-Pliocene phase occurs at the Miocene-Pliocene limit. Recent sedimentological studies indicate this "event" is in fact complex. The Tortonian-lower Pliocene period is marked by a constraint involving an N20 distension in the Polemi and Pissouri basins and an N100 distension in the Psematismenos basin.

Sedimentologic studies have demonstrated three tectonic pulsations during the Messinian prior to the Pliocene transgression. These are expressed by two episodes of seismic brecciation and a paleoemersion indicated by paleosols and detrital discharges. These phenomena suggest brief tectonic instability during the Messinian.

Microtectonic studies reveal that the main change in tectonic constraint does not coincide with the Miocene-Pliocene contact but occurs at the top of the lower Pliocene.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.