The influence of Late Cretaceous synsedimentary deformation on the Cenozoic structuration of the middle Adriatic,Croatia |
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| Abstract: | The primordially structural-lithofacial relationships in the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP) of Croatia were formed by a Late Cretaceous synsedimentary tectonics. During Cenomanian, an extensional tectonic regime differentiated AdCP into several kilometres large paleoenvironmental segments which behaved as individual depocenteres. The latest Cenomanian and earliest Turonian were tectonically relatively quiet periods during which sediments only recorded a relative sea-level rise. Compression commenced during the middle Santonian and formed first (NW-SE) gentle folds in the frontal part of the Split-Dubrovnik thrust. These folds had amplitudes of tens to hundreds of metres and are up to ten kilometres in strike. The apical parts of the anticlines were dominated by shallow-marine deposition with short emergences simultaneously, slope deposition of pelagic sediments took place in the synclines. By the end of the Campanian, compression weakened and younger sediments infilled former depressions while the deposition ended in the Adriatic hinterland of Croatia. During the Maastrichtian the compression recommenced and the index of older folds increased while new folds and reverse faults were formed. Such deformations created a differentiated morphology at the surface subsequently overlaid by Palaeogene sediments. Clastic sediments accumulated indeed in this paleodepression during the Palaeogene and Miocene–Quaternary, forming favourable structural conditions for hydrocarbon generation. |
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| Keywords: | Adriatic Carbonate Platform Mesozoic Cretaceous synsedimentary deformation tectonic evolution |
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