Variation in style of magmatism and emplacement mechanism induced by changes in basin environments and stress fields (Pannonian Basin,Central Europe)

The development of high‐resolution 3D seismic cubes has permitted recognition of variable subvolcanic features mostly located in passive continental margins. Our study area is situated in a different tectonic setting, in the extensional Pannonian Basin system (central Europe) where the lithospheric extension was associated with a wide variety of magmatic suites during the Miocene. Our primary objective is to map the buried magmatic bodies, to better understand the temporal and spatial variation in the style of magmatism and emplacement mechanism within the first order Mid‐Hungarian Fault Zone (MHFZ) along which the substantial Miocene displacement took place. The combination of seismic, borehole and log data interpretation enabled us to delineate various previously unknown subvolcanic‐volcanic features. In addition, a new approach of neural network analysis on log data was applied to detect and quantitatively characterise hydrothermal mounds that are hard to interpret solely from seismic data. The volcanic activity started in the Middle Miocene and induced the development of extrusive volcanic mounds south of the NE‐SW trending, continuous strike‐slip fault zone (Hajdú Fault Zone). In the earliest Late Miocene (11.6–9.78 Ma), the style of magmatic activity changed resulting in emplacement of intrusions and development of hydrothermal mounds. Sill emplacement occurred from south‐east to north‐west based on primary flow‐emplacement structures. The time of sill emplacement and the development of hydrothermal mounds can be bracketed by onlapped forced folds and mounds. This time coincided with the acceleration of sedimentation producing poorly consolidated, water‐saturated sediments preventing magma from flowing to the paleosurface. The change in extensional direction resulted in change in fault pattern, thus the formerly continuous basin‐bounding strike‐slip fault became segmented which could facilitate the magma flow toward the basin centre.     

Seismic geomorphology and growth architecture of a Miocene barrier reef,Browse Basin,NW-Australia

The Cenozoic succession of Browse Basin is characterized by a carbonate system, that developed from a non-tropical ramp in Eocene-lower Miocene times to a tropical rimmed platform in the middle Miocene. The evolution of the platform was unraveled through the interpretation of the seismic geomorphology and borehole data of the middle Miocene tropical reef system. The first reef structures developed during the early middle Miocene as narrow linear reef belts with an oblique orientation with respect to shelf strike direction. Subsequently, they prograded toward the platform margin to form a barrier reef with a minimum length of 40 km. The barrier reef itself comprises three distinct ridges separated by progradational steps. The second and third step are separated by a karstified horizon, which is interpreted to represent the global sea-level fall shortly before the Serravallian/Tortonian boundary. The following third ridge formed in a slightly downstepped position during the sea-level lowstand and initial transgressive phase. Further sea-level rise during the early Tortonian first drowned the barrier-reef system and subsequently also the patch reefs and relic atolls that had established in a backstepped position in the platform interior. The similar evolution of the Browse Basin reef system and other contemporaneous carbonate systems indicates a strong impact of eustatic sea-level changes. Relatively large subsidence rates in the study area possibly augmented the eustatic sea-level rise in the Tortonian and hence contributed to the drowning of the reef system. However, the initiation and final demise of the reef system was also governed by global and regional climate variations. The first seismically-defined reefs developed simultaneous to a maximum in the transport capacity of the Indonesian throughflow, which brings warm low-salinity waters to the North-West Shelf. Reef drowning followed the restriction of this seaway close to the middle to early Miocene boundary. This near closure of the Indonesian seaway possibly led to a regional amplification of the global middle to late Miocene cooling trend and hampered the potential of the reef system to keep up with the rising sea-level.     

The response of a basin‐scale Miocene barrier reef system to long‐term,strong subsidence on a passive continental margin,Barcoo Sub‐basin,Australian North West Shelf

The Miocene sedimentary succession of the southern Browse Basin records the response of a tropical reef system to long‐term, strong subsidence on a passive continental margin. Geological interpretation of a comprehensive two‐dimensional (2D) seismic reflectivity data set documents for the first time the development of a continuous Miocene barrier reef on the Australian North West Shelf. With a length of over 250 km, this barrier reef is among the Earth's largest in the Neogene record. A sequence stratigraphic analysis tied to well data shows that the main controls for the evolution, growth and demise of the reef system were subsidence, third‐order global‐scale eustatic variations and antecedent topography. The generally very high Miocene subsidence rates estimated for the study area cannot be explained by typical passive‐margin subsidence controlled by lithospheric cooling and sedimentary loading alone. Additional dynamic subsidence induced by mantle convection, though documented as unusually large on the northern margin of Australia during the Neogene, can be also regarded as being of only minor importance. Therefore, accelerated tectonic subsidence related to the collision of the Australian and Eurasian Plates 250–500 km north of the study area seems to exert an important influence on reef development and demise, complicated by local tectonic inversion. The Miocene tectonic reactivation and inversion of an older structural grain is interpreted to have controlled the reef development considerably by providing localized topographic highs along transpressional anticlines above basement‐rooted faults that served as preferential sites for reef growth and retreat during times of rapidly rising sea level. This exemplarily shows that the far‐field effects of collision‐induced tectonic subsidence can significantly influence carbonate systems on passive margins.