ERATOSTHENES SEAMOUNT - COLLISIONAL PROCESSES IN THE EASTERNMOST MEDITERRANEAN IN RELATION TO THE PLIOQUATERNARY UPLIFT OF SOUTHERN CYPRUS

Important new light is shed on subduction and incipient collisional pr ocesses in the Easternmost Mediterranean, notably the Plio-Quaternary uplift of the Troodos ophiolite, from new geophysical information coll ected during a cruise of the R.V. Gelendzhik in July 1993, as part of the 'Training-through-Research' programme. The data collected over the Eratosthenes Seamount formed part of the site-survey work for Leg 160 of the Ocean Drilling Program scheduled for spring 1995. The main res ults are that the Eratosthenes Seamount is in the process of actively subsiding, breaking-up and being thrust, beneath both Cyprus to the no rth and the Levantine Basin to the south. Northwards thrusting appears to post-date the Messinian, when evaporites accumulated around the lo wer flanks of a pre-existing seamount feature. Comparison with the geo logy of southern Cyprus and offshore areas suggests a causative Link b etween northward underthrusting of the Eratosthenes Seamount and late Pliocene-mid Quaternary uplift of southern Cyprus, focused on the cent re of the Troodos ophiolite.