The Nature and Prospectivity of the Levantine Basin, East Mediterranean: New Insights from Depth Imaged Seismic Data

Glyn F. Roberts¹, David Rowlands², and Dave Peace^3
1GGS-Spectrum, Bedford, United Kingdom
²GGS-Spectrum, Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom
³SD Exploration Services, Fleet, United Kingdom

This poster paper illustrates the nature of the Levantine Basin based on an analysis of modern seismic data. It shows that the basin is not oceanic in character (as has been suggested by numerous authors in the past) but that it is comprised of a substantial thickness (> 10,000 metres) of Mesozoic to Cenozoic sediments above a rifted terrain of probably Triassic- Lower Jurassic age.
Depth imaged sections are used to show the nature of the Basin including its relationship to the Eratosthenes Seamount and the Larnaca Thrust Zone.
Depth imaged sections (with Time Migration comparisons) are also used to illustrate some of the numerous plays seen in the area. From younger to older these are:
1) Post-salt (Pliocene to Recent) channel sands;
2) Intra-salt (Messinian) sand plays such as bright spots and channels;
3) Sub-Messinian salt plays;
4) Anticlines and faulted anticlines in the Middle Cretaceous to Paleogene;
5) Onlaps in the Middle Cretaceous to Paleogene;
6) Fault blocks and combined fault/stratigraphic traps in the Middle Cretaceous to Paleogene;
7) Large Inversion structures in the Middle Cretaceous to Paleogene;
8) Carbonate buildups in the Cretaceous (e.g Rudist reefs) and Paleogene-Neogene;
9) Onlap and drape onto Jurassic highs;
10) Jurassic sediments in anticlines/horsts or inverted grabens;
11) Jurassic carbonate build-ups on highs;
12) Jurassic karst plays; and
13) Triassic plays.
Depth imaging of the seismic data is shown to aid the evaluation of many of these plays.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece