The Uplift of the Troodos Massif, Cyprus

Abstract

We constrain the fault pattern and the kinematics of faulting that facilitated the uplift of the Troodos Massif in Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. The fault pattern consists of E-W striking reverse faults, N-S striking normal faults, and NW striking dextral and NE striking sinistral strike/oblique-slip faults. Fault-slip analysis reveals that this overall pattern resulted from subhorizontal NNW directed shortening and coeval, subhorizontal ENE directed extension. Dated sediments affected by faulting reveal that the N-S striking normal faults are, at least in part, younger than 2.14 Ma. This suggests that the entire fault pattern, or at least a large part of it, resulted or was reworked during post-2.14-Ma deformation. Published work further shows that the uplift of the Troodos Massif was controlled by underthrusting of the Eratosthenes Seamount, which entered the Cyprus subduction zone by about 2 Ma. The alleged E-W extent of the underthrust segment of the seamount approximately matches the size of the high-topography area of the Troodos Mountains. We interpret this geometry to have caused spatially limited crustal thickening underneath the high-topography area by subhorizontal N-S shortening in front of and above the underthrusting seamount and coeval, subhorizontal E-W extension at its flanks, and that the uplift of the high-topography area occurred in the footwall of the N-S striking normal faults. This model is broadly in line with seismicity and may also explain why serpentinized mantle rocks and dense gabbro are now exposed on top of the Troodos Massif.