Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.12,
No.4, pp. 419-436, 1989
©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press,
Ltd.
MESOZOIC-PALAEOGENE BASIN
DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN BORDERLAND
N. S. Abu-Jaber, M. M. Kimberley
and V. V. Cavaroc*
* Department of Marine, Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences, Box 8208, North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, NC 27695. USA.
Abstract
Pre-Alpine structures in the SE
Mediterranean (Levant) are characterized by regional extensional
features which are associated with opening of the Mediterranean
Sea. Marginal marine basins apparently began forming during the
Triassic and Jurassic, and reached their apex during the
Cretaceous. Stress patterns attributed to early development of
the Mediterranean are similar to those seen in the relatively
stable adjacent continental margin. The two major
structural-basin trend, in the continental margin are orthogonal,
e.g. the NW-SE trend of the Sirhan Basin, and the NE-SW trend of
the Palmyra Basin. The western convergence of these two basins is
marked by basaltic flows and volcanoclastic deposits probably
related to basaltic volcanism in the nearby Mediterranean Sea.
These two basins maintained a largely unimpeded circulation of
seawater with the opening Mediterranean, and therefore they
contain few highly carbonaceous beds. Post-rift shortening
apparently produced minor petroleum resources.
