Basin tectonics during the Early Cretaceous in the Levant margin, Lebanon

We present new brittle tectonic data constraining the onset of formation of the eastern passive margin of the Levant basin (Eastern Mediterranean basin) in Lebanon. From the identification of syn-tectonic growth faults, we infer an extensional tectonic regime starting in the Early Cretaceous and ceasing during the Cenomanian. The related stress field had a NNE-SSW direction of extension. It produced WSW-ENE to WNW-ESE normal faults with offsets as large as several hundred meters. Late Jurassic volcanic activity preceded this rifting event and continued until the late Aptian. Thickness and facies variations of the Lower Cretaceous sequence indicate that this rifting event led to the development of an E-W basin in Lebanon. This basin deepens westward, with a possible offshore continuation. The significant obliquity between the ∼NE-SW Early Mesozoic faults in southeastern corner of the Levant basin and ∼E-W Early Cretaceous faults recognized in Lebanon indicates that the mechanisms driving the development of the Eastern Mediterranean basin drastically changed during the Mesozoic.