The nature of deep-marine sedimentation and palaeocurrent trends as evidence of Pindos foreland basin fill conditions

Abstract

The Pindos foreland basin is an example of Tertiary turbidite basin fill, segmented during its evolution by propagating thrusts. The distribution of turbidite facies in the Pindos foreland and the palaeocurrent directions of submarine fan development show that the northern part of the Pindos foredeep, from the middle Eocene to the late Oligocene, was an example of underfilled foreland basin. Adjacent to the Pindos thrust front (internal Ionian zone), during that period, in the northern part of the thrust, a valley was formed in which sediments concentrated from both the thrust front and the peripheral bulge. As a result of underfilled conditions, coarse-grained conglomeratic deposits accumulated only in the internal Ionian zone (proximal part - inner fan deposits) while in the middle Ionian zone medium-grained sediments were deposited (distal part - outer fan and basin plain deposits) without any presence of conglomeratic distributary channels. The restriction of the coarse-grained deposits in the internal Ionian zone and the basin underfilled conditions are related to the Pindos foreland evolution, and especially to the internal thrusting and intrabasinal high. It seems that the underfilled conditions could be related to narrow linear foreland basins where deep-water submarine fans accumulated.