Tectonic control of the meteora conglomeratic formations (Mesohellenic basin, Greece)

摘要

The Meteora are a famous sightseeing area of northern Greece, namely for the monasteries culminating at the strange pinnacles surrounded by impressive cliffs made of a stack of conglomeratic fan deltas from the Lower Miocene. This paper analyzes the imprint on their stratigraphy of regional deformation related to the subduction of the external zones beneath the Mesohellenic basin (MHB). The onset of deposition of the Meteora series corresponds to a major change in depositional regime (from marls to conglomerates) that can be followed throughout the MHB. The tectonic control on that change is supported by both sedimentological and structural characteristics, such as the progressive tilting of topset dip within the fan-deltas, the input of large volumes of pebbles derived from areas of rapidly renewed reliefs to the east of the Meteora (Pelagonian indentor), and the partitioning of two successive Meteora depocentres apart from a large faulted anticline (Theopetra-Theotokos structure). Most of the recorded deformation corresponds to vertical movements, with the local development of early Miocene synsedimentary normal faults.