Drainage systems and their relations to the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Levant Basin

New high-resolution imaging of recently acquired data in the Levant basin shed light on very dense channel systems. The processes behind their origin, timing and direction - during the different stages of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) - is still unresolved and partly understood. Discoveries of such drainage systems raise questions on a past topography and mechanisms responsible for the channel morphologies, the understanding of these channel patterns is thus essential for a meaningful assessment of such mechanisms involved in the context of the MSC and its aftermath. Our results show that the drainage direction was undergoing extreme changes during short time intervals in the Levant Basin. Indeed, new maps presented here indicate different past drainage orientations, which is in contrast to the current-day turbidite channels - draining the Sinai-Levant continental margin northward towards the Cyprus Arc. We hypothesize from these results that drainage change, from southwest to north, expresses northward tilting of the basin towards the Cyprus subduction zone, however, when exactly did this tilting occur? Deciphering the timing of such events is important in order to get a better understanding of tectonostratigraphic settings, controlling depocenter locations in the Levant basin in the MSC. We also suggest that the unique pattern of channels over the Intra-Messinian Truncation Surface (IMTS), expresses a complex seafloor relief which was mainly controlled by salt tectonics induced thrusts faults.

Keywords: Messinian Salinity Crisis, Channel systems, Evaporites, Seismic Reflection Profiles