CRETACEOUS TECTONIC SETTING OF ERATOSTHENES SEAMOUNT IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN NEOTETHYS - INITIAL RESULTS OF ODP LEG-160

Recent ODP traverse of boreholes on the northern flank of Eratosthenes Seamount in the eastern Mediterranean Sea encountered shallow marine carbonates of mid-Cretaceous (?) age, overlain first by bathyal chalks of Coniacian-Maastrichtian and Eocene ages, then by shallow-marine li mestones of Miocene age. The succession is similar to that of the sout hern Levant, but is markedly different from southern Cyprus. The resul ts suggest that Eratosthenes Seamount formed part of the divergent Afr ican margin during the Mesozoic. It was submerged in the Late Cretaceo us, then uplifted by the Miocene. Neogene subduction along the Cyprean active margin brought the Eratosthenes Seamount into incipient collis ion with Cyprus.