TECTONIC CONTROL ON MUD VOLCANOES AND FLUID SEEPS IN THE ANAXIMANDER MOUNTAINS, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Abstract

Deep-tow sidescan sonar and subbottom profiler data (from the 1999 MEDINETH survey), together with observations from the submersible Nautile (from the 1998 MEDINAUT survey), have been used to examine the occurrence of mud volcanoes in the Anaximander Mountains and along the Florence rise in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. This area, located at the intersection of the Hellenic trench and the Cyprus arc, is undergoing complex crustal deformation as a result of transpressional and transtensional tectonics, in response to collisional plate interactions. Widespread fluid escape through mud volcanoes and cold seeps occurs within the main wrench zones along the western branch of the Cyprus arc. Fault zones are inferred to provide pathways for overpressured mud and fluids. Mud volcanoes are spatially associated with both major and secondary faults within the regional stress field. This analysis reveals the fundamental role of transcurrent and extensional faulting in the extrusion of mud and the formation of mud volcanoes. © 2006 Geological Society of America.