Source to sink: The development of the latest Messinian to Pliocene–Quaternary Cilicia and Adana Basins and their linkages with the onland Mut Basin, eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

Abstract Multi-channel seismic reflection profiles show that there is a thick northeast–southwest elongated lobe of uppermost Messinian and Pliocene–Quaternary sediments across the Cilicia Basin extending into the onland Adana Basin. Three prominent seismic markers divide this succession into three subunits. Detailed isopach maps constructed using a dense grid of depth-converted seismic reflection profiles show that these three subunits display distinctive sediment distribution patterns that can be confidently related to eastward deposition from the Goksu River to the west. Subsidence rates calculated at 95 locations within the Cilicia and Adana Basins using OSXBackstrip show that the central axis of the Cilicia–Adana Basin complex is subsiding at a rate of ~ 10–20 mm per year. The subsidence rates sharply decrease both toward the Misis–Kyrenia Fault zone in the south and east and the Turkish continental margin in the west and north to values of 0.10–0.15 mm per year. Subsidence rates were 0.10–0.20 mm per year during the deposition of the middle and upper Pliocene, but decreased to ~ 0.05 mm per year. Sedimentation rates calculated for the three subunits compared to the present-day rate of sedimentation by the Goksu River clearly show that sedimentation in the early Pliocene interval was significantly greater than it is today. The data show that the dramatic subsidence of the Cilicia Basin (~ 2000 m since the Messinian) occurred in synchroneity with the rise of the Mut Basin nestled over the Central Taurus Mountains. The adjacency of the Mut and Cilicia Basins suggests that there must be a common local cause for the uplift of the Mut Basin and the subsidence of the Cilicia Basin. We believe that the rise of the Central Taurus Mountains represents an additional load on the underlying asthenosphere, the isostatic response of which would have caused the subsidence in the Cilicia Basin.