The Rhodes Basin, a post-Miocene tectonic trough

New light is shed on the enigmatic Rhodes deep marine basin by a set of und erway geophysical data across it, including swath bathymetry, seismic refle ction profiles, gravity and magnetic data. This deep trough (as much as 448 5 m) to the east of the Island of Rhodes and close to southwestern Turkey, contains no Messinian evaporites and only a thin Pliocene-Quaternary sedime ntary section (< 1000 m) overlying an acoustic basement. This basement is l ikely composed of pre-Miocene tectonized rocks tentatively related to neigh bouring Hellenide-Tauride alpine orogens. Reverse faulting, strike-slip fau lts, sedimentary nappes and mass sliding are presently occurring in the Rho des Basin mainly around its edges. This tectonic activity, together with a relatively important seismicity (particularly along its northwestern margin ), indicates that the basin is still evolving. We suggest that the Rhodes B asin results from st general collapse of what is now its brittle basement, in connection with the progressive development of transform motion along th e eastern branch of the Hellenic Are. If our hypotheses are correct, the Rh odes Basin is a relatively recent (post-Miocene) foundered trough, somewhat similar to pull-apart basins which have also developed along the transpres sive branch of the Hellenic subduction zone, particularly along the Pliny T rench. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.