The development of a late Cretaceous microplate suture zone in SW Cyprus

Abstract

Recent detailed mapping and volcanic geochemistry of rocks exposed in erosional windows through post-Cretaceous cover rocks in SW Cyprus have provided evidence for the development of a model for late Cretaceous microplate collision in the eastern Mediterranean. Two major juxtaposed terranes are recognized: the older Mamonia Complex consisting of Triassic ocean floor, accompanying seamounts and a series of continental rise prism sediments, and the younger Troodos Complex consisting of ophiolitic rocks formed in a supra-subduction zone environment, and modified in part by transform fault tectonics and magmatism. The two complexes were juxtaposed along an intricate suture zone, the evolution of which displays two main phases of contractional deformation of late Cretaceous age. These are a primary north- and northwest-directed thrusting, and a secondary backthrusting episode towards the west and southwest, that in places reorganized the initial structural stacking sequence. Extensional faulting of Troodos Complex rocks, that took place on the ocean floor prior to juxtaposition, clearly influenced the orientation of the later thin-skinned delamination. Although there is some evidence for strike-slip faulting, this process does not appear as extensive as proposed by previous workers. © 1993 The Geological Society.