Cretaceous tectonic setting of Eratosthenes Seamount in the eastern Mediterranean Neotethys: initial results of ODP Leg 160

A recent ODP traverse of boreholes on the N flank of Eratosthenes Seamount in the E Mediterranean Sea encountered shallow marine carbonates of mid-Cretaceous (?) age, overlain first by bathyal chalks of Coniacian-Maastrichtian and Eocene ages, then by shallow-marine limestones of Miocene age. The succession is similar to that of S Levant, but is markedly different from S Cyprus. The results suggest that Eratosthenes Seamount formed part of the divergent African margin during the Mesozoic. It was submerged in the Late Cretaceous, then uplifted by the Miocene. Neogene subduction along the Cyprean active margin brought the Eratosthenes Seamount into incipient collision with Cyprus.