The Rhone and the Nile rivers shape the sediment distribution of the Ligurian and the Levantine basins in the Mediterranean Sea, respectively. Both rivers cut huge canyons in their bed rock during the Messinian desiccation of the Mediterranean, and the subsequent early Pliocene marine transgression reached far inland both in France and in Egypt. The sediment supply of both rivers was affected by climatic variations during the Pleistocene, but whereas glacial periods were associated with reduced water flow in the Rhone, they can be correlated with enhanced flow of the Nile. The sediment distribution and accumulation patterns of both rivers built large deltas on their continental shelves during high sea level stands. During lowstands both rivers flowed as far as the shelf e ge, and transported their sedimentary load through the continental slopes directly to their deep-sea fans. The patterns of sediment distribution and accumulation in the marine basins of the Ligurian and the Levantine seas were affected also by Pliocene-Quaternary tectonic activity and halokinetic offsets that led to sediment instability. The present hydrographic and sedimentological regimes of both rivers do not represent their natural potential due to artificial interference.

The principal economic significance of the deep-sea fan accumulation process is the transportation of medium- and coarse-grained sediments into the deep-marine basin. Considering the effect of these sediments on stratal permeabilities and hydrocarbon potential, the presented comparative overview emphasizes recent and subrecent sedimentological aspects that are critical to petroleum exploration in active and extinct deep-sea depositional environments.