Diapiric structures in the eastern Mediterranean Herodotus basin

A 45-km square seismic reflection profiling grid survey was made in the part of the Herodotus basin where there is a large thickness of strongly deformed sediment, to determine the nature and cause of the deformation. The survey showed that the area has sediment ponded between highs in the underlying deformed sedimentary sequence, which becomes more deformed with increasing depth. The deepest continuous reflector that can be seen is probably reflector M. The seismic velocity above this is 3.2 km s^?1; a velocity could not be obtained from below this reflector. A map of depth to reflector M shows small rises superimposed on a strong linear north-south rise. There are no magnetic anomalies associated with any of these rises, so they are not caused by doming above igneous intrusions. The structures could be caused by syn-depositional folding, or sedimentary diapirism, of which sedimentary diapirism seems the most probable.