Abstract During the Messinian Salinity Crisis a multi-layered salt giant of 1.5 km thickness was precipitated in the Levant Basin, easternmost Mediterranean Sea. Incipient deformation of this geologically young salt layer was commonly explained by gravity-driven processes only. Based on high-quality depth-migrated seismic data, we show for the first time, how sub-salt extensional faults influence the internal deformation pattern of the Messinian evaporites in the Levant Basin. Extensional faulting started in the Middle Miocene and lasted until Late Messinian times. We suggest faulting to have caused the development of fault-propagation folds within the evaporite unit. Subsequently, folds may have accommodated tectonic shortening at the Latakia Ridge and evolved into the presently observed complex intra-evaporite fold pattern. While fault-controlled evaporite deformation is evident in the northern part of the Levant Basin only, evaporites are increasingly influenced by Nile-derived differential sediment loading towards the south. Locally, zones of reduced amplitudes in the sub-salt domain terminate into phase-reversed bright spots within the lower part of the evaporites, indicating active fluid migration and potentially evaporite dissolution. Finally, we present a high-resolution velocity model of the Messinian evaporites, based on model-based processing and residual moveout analysis. Relatively high interval velocities of acoustically transparent evaporites (3850–4240 km/s) are consistent with halite, whereas lower velocities of reflective layers (3650–4030 km/s) may point towards the presence of low-velocity evaporite facies like gypsum.
Abstract During the Messinian Salinity Crisis a multi-layered salt giant of 1.5 km thickness was precipitated in the Levant Basin, easternmost Mediterranean Sea. Incipient deformation of this geologically young salt layer was commonly explained by gravity-driven processes only. Based on high-quality depth-migrated seismic data, we show for the first time, how sub-salt extensional faults influence the internal deformation pattern of the Messinian evaporites in the Levant Basin. Extensional faulting started in the Middle Miocene and lasted until Late Messinian times. We suggest faulting to have caused the development of fault-propagation folds within the evaporite unit. Subsequently, folds may have accommodated tectonic shortening at the Latakia Ridge and evolved into the presently observed complex intra-evaporite fold pattern. While fault-controlled evaporite deformation is evident in the northern part of the Levant Basin only, evaporites are increasingly influenced by Nile-derived differential sediment loading towards the south. Locally, zones of reduced amplitudes in the sub-salt domain terminate into phase-reversed bright spots within the lower part of the evaporites, indicating active fluid migration and potentially evaporite dissolution. Finally, we present a high-resolution velocity model of the Messinian evaporites, based on model-based processing and residual moveout analysis. Relatively high interval velocities of acoustically transparent evaporites (3850–4240 km/s) are consistent with halite, whereas lower velocities of reflective layers (3650–4030 km/s) may point towards the presence of low-velocity evaporite facies like gypsum.