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When interpreting marine very high-resolution (VHR) single-channel seismic reflection data, the signal in the water column is generally considered as noise and is often eliminated by a water-mute application to focus on geological information under the seafloor. Alternatively, the signal in the water column can be used to study ocean currents or gas/fluid emissions. To provide images of the sedimentary formations and tectonic structures beneath the seafloor in shallow water regions, such as continental shelves and lakes, marine seismic reflection profiles are often acquired using a single-channel streamer and sparker-type source, providing VHR data, with limited penetration depth. To exploit the full potential of these single-channel data, we propose a simple algorithm, called REWARE (Recovery of Water-column Acoustic Reflectors). This algorithm allows to extract further geological information from the water-column data using open-source codes (Seismic Un*x), adding the coherent signal from the previous shots, recorded in the water column, to the previous traces. The record length becomes longer while maintaining a very high trace-to-trace consistency. To demonstrate its efficiency, we present two examples of the REWARE processing in two different geological contexts: the East Sardinia shelf (Italy) and the North Evia Gulf (Greece). This method provides deeper images than with original data for seismic data acquired across steep slopes, such as canyons or continental shelf breaks. Thus, depending on the seafloor geometry and subseafloor structures, it is possible to image or map sediment layers and tectonic structures at depth, keeping a very high structural resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the orogenic development of the Hellenides, the "Frontal Thrust of Internal Zones" (FTIZ) localised tectonic superposition of the Internal Zones over the External Zones. The belt was subsequently subject to a major extensional deformation responsible for a negative tectonic inversion of the FTIZ, along a major detachment called here "Main Pelagonian Detachment" (MPD). The along-strike changes in the geometry and the kinematics of the MPD suggest different tectonic configurations largely inherited fromthe flat-ramp-flat initial geometry of the thrust. The distribution of the recent basins, mainly located within the Internal Zones, illustrates the major role of the FTIZ reactivation in the overall collapse of Internal Hellenides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The architecture (geometry, fault network, and stacking pattern of accreted thrust sheets) of accretionary wedges influences subduction zone processes. However, it remains challenging to constrain the architectural evolution in natural accretionary wedges over geological timescales. In this study, we undertook sandbox analog modeling, with quantitative analysis of the wedge geometry and digital image correlation‐based kinematics, to delineate the wedge growth history with four décollement settings (single or double and continuous or discontinuous). The results show that the wedge is formed by repeated episodic frontal accretion with a constant cycle (i.e., the accretion cycle), and the degree of coupling between the base of the wedge and subducting plate interface appears to depend on the relative strengths of the wedge and detachment. An interbedded décollement layer in the incoming sediment facilitated wedge segmentation and rearrangement of the internal fault network, which weakened the wedge strength. A combination of a detachable high‐friction patch in the basal décollement and a continuous interbedded weak layer enabled underplating of underthrusted sediment beneath the inner wedge, which involved a low‐angle, long‐lived forethrust and multiple cycles of frontal accretion on short‐lived forethrusts at the deformation front. Our findings suggest that décollement configuration is a key factor in controlling the accretion cycle, strain distribution, fault network, and wedge strength on timescales of ∼105 yr in natural accretionary systems. This result should be considered when investigating modern subduction zones. Plain Language Summary: Accretionary wedges, which are one of the key components of subduction zones, comprise sediments scraped off from a downgoing plate. However, understanding the spatial and temporal changes of their growth and deformation patterns over geological timescales is challenging. In this study, we conducted laboratory experiments using different types of sands to quantify the deformation processes during wedge growth. We tested various layering conditions and, in particular, how single or double and continuous or discontinuous weak layers affect wedge growth. Our results show that wedge growth is achieved by repetition of a frontal accretion cycle, but the detailed nature of the cycle depends on the properties of the weak layers. In particular, an additional weak layer in the subducting sediment is critical in modifying the accretion cycle, strain distribution, and fault activity during wedge growth. Our findings suggest that weak layers are key in determining the stress–strain state in natural wedges and on the plate boundary as the wedge grows on a timescale of ∼105 yr. Key Points: An interbedded weak layer reduced the effective internal friction angle of the wedge, weakened the wedge, and formed a dense fault networkSubduction of a frictional barrier in the basal décollement resulted in out‐of‐sequence thrusting and facilitated sediment underplatingOur results contribute to an understanding of the growth processes, architectural evolution, and kinematics of natural accretionary wedges [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Messinian sea-level draw down associated with the Messinian Salinity Crisis is still questioned, we propose to show that the widely spread erosion surface affecting the Mediterranean margins is indeed linked to an exondation demonstrated from offshore and onshore data. Our study presents a comprehensive onshore to offshore correlation of the Messinian erosional surface. It is focused on small drainage systems or interfluve areas, outside of evaporite basins or incised canyons, where the Messinian erosion had not yet been studied previously: around Ibiza on the Balearic Promontory and around Orosei on the Eastern Sardinian margin, Tyrrhenian Basin, both areas where new offshore data were recently acquired. We show that the late Messinian erosion formed in subaerial settings, as testified by evidence of continentalization events, and attests for a regression phase that was correlated from the offshore continental slopes to the onshore paleo-platforms in both areas. Characteristics of this erosion in both study areas strengthen the scenario with at least one important low-stand sea-level for the Messinian Salinity Crisis with evaporites subbasins lying at different depths and possibly disconnected.

Analysis of offshore seismic lines suggests that a strong relationship exists between tectonic structures and fluid migration in accretionary prisms. However, only few field analogues of plumbing systems and their tectonic frameworks have been investigated in detail until now. The uplifted accretionary prism of the Hikurangi Margin (North Island, New Zealand) exposes early to late Miocene mudrocks in coastal cliffs of Cape Turnagain and in the Akitio syncline, south-east of the Pongaroa city. These outcrops display tubular carbonate concretions corresponding to complex subsurface plumbing networks of paleo-seeps within Miocene trench slope basins. We present here, new results on the spatial distribution of these tubular carbonate concretions, with particular attention to their relation to tectonic structures. In the Pongaroa area, tubular carbonate concretions in lower Miocene mudrocks occur along a N-S trend, while in middle Miocene strata they occur along a NNE-SSW direction. The N-S trend parallels a major fault zone (i.e. the Breakdown fault zone), which separates two wide synclines, the Waihoki and the Akitio synclines. During the Early-Middle Miocene, the Breakdown fault zone controlled the evolution of the Akitio trench slope basin constituting its western edge. The NNE-SSW strike parallels the axis of the Akitio syncline and is also parallel to the present-day subduction front. Our results therefore show that tubular concretions are parallel to post-Middle Miocene second order folding and thrusting in the northeastern limb of the Akitio syncline. In the Cape Turnagain area, tubular concretions occur in the western limb of the Cape Turnagain syncline, in the footwall of the major seaward-verging Cape Turnagain fault. This suggests that fluid migrations may occur not only in the crests of anticlines, as observed offshore for present-day plumbing system of cold seeps, but also in the footwalls of thrust faults. All these observations show that the spatial distribution of tubular concretions is controlled by regional tectonic structures with paleo-fluid migrations related to major deformation episodes of the accretionary prism. Thus, we distinguish three episodes events that likely triggered fluid migration leading to the formation of the tubular concretions: (1) In the Early Miocene, shortly after the onset of development of the Akitio trench slope basin, on its inner (western) edge; (2) During the late Middle Miocene, during an extensional deformation episode on the western limb of the Akitio trench slope basin; (3) At the end of the Late Miocene, during a second major shortening period at the footwall of major thrust fault, such as in the Cape Turnagain area.

Deformation across the active Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand, including shortening, extension, vertical-axis rotations, and strike-slip faulting in the upper plate, has been estimated for the last ~24 Myr using margin-normal seismic reflection lines and cross sections, strike-slip fault displacements, paleomagnetic declinations, bending of Mesozoic terranes, and seafloor spreading information. Post-Oligocene shortening in the upper plate increased southward, reaching a maximum rate of 3-8 mm/year in the southern North Island. Upper plate shortening is a small proportion of the rate of plate convergence, most of which (>80%) accrued on the subduction thrust. The uniformity of these shortening rates is consistent with the near-constant rate of displacement transfer (averaged over [greater than or equal to] 5 Myr) from the subduction thrust into the upper plate. In contrast, the rates of clockwise vertical-axis rotations of the eastern Hikurangi Margin were temporally variable, with ~3[degrees]/Myr since 10 Ma and ~0[degrees]-1[degrees]/Myr prior to 10 Ma. Post 10 Ma, the rates of rotation decreased westward from the subduction thrust, which resulted in the bending of the North Island about an axis at the southern termination of subduction. With rotation of the margin and southward migration of the Pacific Plate Euler poles, the component of the margin-parallel relative plate motion increased to the present. Plate convergence dominated the Hikurangi Margin before ca. 15 Ma, with the rate of margin-parallel motion increasing markedly since 10 Ma. Vertical-axis rotations could accommodate all margin-parallel motion before 1-2 Ma, eliminating the requirement for large strike-slip displacements (for example, >50 km) in the upper plate since the Oligocene. doi: 10.1029/2006TC002090.

The fill of trench-slope basins is complex, varying temporally, laterally, and longitudinally. New data from the Neogene stratigraphy of the Akitio Sub-basin, Wairarapa, are presented to investigate such fill variation. The preserved basin fill spans an area 70 km long by 10 km wide, representing deposits from a trench-slope basin. Integration of sedimentological, micropalaeoentological, and geological mapping data charts basin fill evolution. Over 15 km of strata were logged, defining 17 lithofacies associations, which were mapped across the basin; these are interpreted to represent both shallow and deep-water environments. The deep-water strata show a temporal evolution from ponded turbidite deposition, to a period of basin spill via conduits connecting to downstream basins, development of aggradational channel-levees, and finally unconfined submarine fan deposition. Shallow marine deposits mostly developed on the up-dip basin margin occur contemporaneously with basinal mass-transport deposits, and in association with the growth of basin bounding structural ridges. Comparison with the evolution of the offshore, actively filling Akitio Trough highlights controls on trench-slope basin fill: a first-order influence of external controls, e.g. tectonism to create the basin; a second-order progression from under- to overfilled; and third-order lateral variation reflecting autogenic process and the effects of local structures on seafloor gradients. These factors combine to vary sedimentation in trench-slope-basins spatially and temporally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early Miocene limestones from the Wairarapa region of New Zealand were deposited on thrust-bounded margins of trench-slope basins, and consist of two superposed stratal units, namely units A and B, interpreted as forced regressive and forced transgressive foralgal and rhodolith-bearing deposits, respectively. Unit A is floored by a regressive surface of marine erosion cut into shelfal to bathyal siliciclastic successions, and is overlain across a transgressive surface of erosion by Unit B. A drowning surface abruptly places the latter deposits in contact with deeper hemipelagites and turbidites. The succession is explainable within a tectono-eustatic based framework as follows: (1) Structurally controlled rapid relative sea-level fall, (i.e. sea-bed rise), from upper bathyal to shelfal depths promoted development of regressive ('lowstand') mixed carbonate–siliciclastic deposits. Continuation of seabed rise resulted in deposition of pure carbonate sediments, which are represented by channel-fill rhodolithic rudstones; (2) early stage of relative sea-level rise (i.e. seabed drowning) caused emplacement of transgressive glauconitic limestones, consisting of either foralgal deposits, or incised rhodolithic limestones; (3) continued relative sea-level rise terminated carbonate production. The present study documents carbonate production and termination in a tectonically active and confined intra-slope setting, reflected in the development and distribution of unusual forced regressive, and transgressive rhodolithic-heterozoan carbonates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continental shelves generally supply large-scale mass-wasting events. Yet, the origin and significance of shelf-derived mass-transport deposits (MTDs) for the tectonostratigraphic evolution of subduction complexes and their trench-slope basins have not been extensively studied. Here, we present high-resolution, outcrop-scale insights on both the nature of the reworked sediments, and their mechanisms of development and emplacement along tectonically active margins, by examining the Middle Miocene shelf-derived MTDs outcropping in the exhumed southern portion of the Hikurangi subduction margin. Results show that periods of repeated tectonic activity (thrust propagation, uplift) in such compressional settings not only affect and control the development of shelfal environments but also drive the recurrent generation and destruction of oversteepened slopes, which in turn, favour the destabilisation and collapses of the shelves and their substratum. Here, these events produced both large-scale, shelf-derived sediment mass-failures and local debris flows, which eventually broke down into a series of coalescing, erosive, genetically linked surging flows downslope. The associated MTDs have a regional footprint, being deposited across several trench-slope basins. Recognition of tectonic activity as another causal mechanism for large-scale shelf failure (in addition to sea-level changes, high-sedimentation fluxes) has implications for both stratigraphic predictions and understanding the tectonostratigraphic evolution of deep-marine fold-and-thrust belts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A short ( 5 m.y.) episode of deformation accompanied the onset of the present phase of subduction beneath northern and eastern New Zealand in the earliest Miocene. At many places along the continental margin, the structures produced were dominated by subhorizontal thrust sheets with tens of kilometres of displacement. Thrusting was directed both landward (with or without involvement of the upper part of the downgoing plate) and seaward. The structures are different in style from those typical of active trench slopes, which are predominantly seaward-directed imbricate thrusts and associated folds. The structures show that delamination of the downgoing plate occurred at some places and suggest that a high degree of coupling between upper and lower plates occurred at others.

In the 60s, the Hellenic belt was taken as the "Geosyncline model". Here we take a modern look at this Hellenic/Aegean region which as a concentrate encompasses all the main geodynamic processes known in orogens. This region documents the fundamental characteristics of the geodynamic processes related to mountain building, namely continental rifting, oceanic spreading, oceanic then continental subduction, collision i.e., closure of oceanic basins. In particular, the Mesozoic obduction events in northern Hellenides, and the effects of a still ongoing major extension linked to the active subduction under the Aegean domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Anatolian Fault Zone ( NAFZ) is one of the most hazardous active faults on Earth, yet its Pliocene space-time propagation across the north Aegean domain remains poorly constrained. We use low-temperature multi-thermochronology and inverse thermal modelling to quantify the cooling history of the upper crust across the Olympus range. This range is located in the footwall of a system of normal faults traditionally interpreted as resulting from superposed Middle-Late Miocene N-S stretching, related to the back-arc extension of the Hellenic subduction zone, and a Pliocene-Quaternary transtensional field, attributed to the south-westward propagation of the NAFZ. We find that accelerated exhumational cooling occurred between 12 and 6 Ma at rates of 15-35 °C Ma−1 and decreased to <3 °C Ma−1 by 8-6 Ma. The absence of significant Plio-Pleistocene cooling across Olympus suggests that crustal exhumation there is driven by late Miocene back-arc extension, while the impact of the NAFZ remains limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the Hikurangi subduction margin in the eastern North Island of New Zealand, was analyzed. There is evidence of extensional deformation and this problem is crucial as the forearc domain was previously thought ot have undergone almost continuous compression during the late Cenozoic. It is proposed that the extensional structures reflect the process of tectonic erosion during the middle and late Miocene.

In the Hikurangi subduction wedge (New Zealand), a strong relationship exists between tectonic structures and fluid migrations. In the study area, outcropping tubular carbonate concretions, corresponding to the shallow subsurface plumbing systems of paleo-cold seeps, are hosted by Miocene syn-subduction mudstones. New observations demonstrate the presence of migrated solid bitumen within the tubular concretions and in the fault gouge of a major fault zone. A multi-proxy approach was performed to determine the organic matter thermal maturity in the study area (organic matter petrography and solid bitumen reflectance (BR) R r % (R r : random reflectance)). We also used Rock-Eval pyrolysis, vitrinite reflectance (VR) R r %, and clay mineral reaction progress (illite Kübler-Index and clay mineral paragenesis) to determine the diagenesis grade of the rocks. Low T max values and clay minerals indicate a thermally immature sedimentary cover. The main source rock of the region, the Waipawa Formation is locally thermally mature (VR = 0.86 R r %) suggesting that tectonic thrust-sheet stacking isresponsible for a structural thickening causing local organic maturation. The seaward propagation of out-of-sequence thrusts at base of intra-slope basins could be responsible for the inititation of biogenic fluid flows sourced in the shallow sedimentary cover that is subjected to deformation above the blind thrusts, leading to the earlier generation of the first carbonate tubular concretions. With the continuation of blind thrusting, deep thermogenic fluids then migrated laterally through fault planes (primary migration) and finally vertically through the intrabasinal pre-existing tubular concretions (secondary migration). In this paper, solid bitumen is used for the identification of a fossil thermogenic fluid migration from the source rock, along faults and through tubular carbonate conduits within a subduction thrust-wedge. The study evidences a multi-genetic tubular concretion formation, related with the timing and style of the deformation, being therefore a potential reliable indicator for the evolution of tectonic activity. • Integrated analysis of a plumbing system of paleo-cold seeps on an active margin. • Samples from SR, faults and tubular concretions to determine thermal maturity, bitumen migration, clay mineral reactions. • Circulation of thermogenic fluids in cold seep systems, which correspond initially to migration of shallow biogenic gas. • Role of the shallow plumbing system of biogenic cold seeps as vertical paths for subsequent thermogenic fluid circulations. • Structural thickening due to thrust sheet stacking favor maturation, thrust faults then acting as lateral migration pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The METYSS project ( M essinian E vent in the T yrrhenian from S eismic S tudy) is based on high-resolution seismic data acquired along the Eastern Sardinian margin, Western Tyrrhenian Sea. The main aim is to study the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) in the Western Tyrrhenian Basin, but we also investigated the thinning processes of the continental crust and the timing of crustal vertical movements across this backarc domain. Our first results shown that rifting ended before the MSC, but that crustal activity persisted long after the end of the rifting. This has been particularly observed on the proximal margin, the East-Sardinia Basin, where the Mobile Unit (MU, mobile Messinian salt) is thin or absent. In this study, we examined the distal margin, the Cornaglia Terrace, where the MU accumulated during the MSC and acted as a décollement , thus potentially decoupling the basement from the sedimentary cover. Our observations provide evidence for lateral flow and gravity gliding of the salt and its brittle sedimentary overburden along local basement slopes generated by the post-MSC tilting of some basement blocks formerly generated during the rifting. We also investigated an intriguing wedge-shaped body of MU located in a narrow N-S half graben bounded to the west by a major, east-dipping, crustal normal fault. Classically, one could think that this salt wedge is related to the syn-tectonics deposition of the MU, but we propose an original scenario, in which the post-rift vertical motion of the major fault has been cushioned by lateral flow of an initially tabular salt layer, leaving the supra-salt series apparently unaffected by the crustal motions of the basement. We tested this scenario by comparing natural data and physical (analogue) modelling data. Our results reveal that salt tectonics provides a powerful tool to understand the deep crustal tectonics of the margin and to constrain the timing of vertical motions in the Western Tyrrhenian Basin, results that can be applied to rifted salt-bearing margins worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]