The Cyprus Arc is a curved

plate boundary Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

zone in the

Eastern Mediterranean The Eastern Mediterranean is a loosely delimited region comprising the easternmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, and well as the adjoining land—often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It includes the southern half of Turkey ...

extending from the eastern edge of the

Hellenic arc The Hellenic arc or Aegean arc is an arcuate mountain chain of the southern Aegean Sea located on the southern margin of the Aegean Sea plate. Geologically it results from the subduction of the African plate under it along the Hellenic subduc ...

to the triple junction of the

Anatolian Plate The Anatolian plate is a continental tectonic plate lying under Asiatic part of Turkey, known as Anatolia. Most of the country of Turkey is located on the Anatolian plate. The plate is separated from the Eurasian plate and the Arabian plate ...

, Arabian Plate and African Plate. Unlike simpler plate margins, the Cyprus Arc accommodates simultaneous

compression Compression may refer to: Physical science *Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces *Compression member, a structural element such as a column *Compressibility, susceptibility to compression * Gas compression *Compression ratio, of a ...

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (proof theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that ...

and

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

movements along different segments, reflecting the complex interaction of three major plates. The arc is linked into the Latakia Ridge to the west via the

East Anatolian Fault The East Anatolian Fault (EAF; ) is a ~700 km long major strike-slip fault zone running from eastern to south-central Turkey. It forms the transform type tectonic boundary between the Anatolian sub-plate and the northward-moving Arabian ...

(EAF).

Tectonic regime

Early models portrayed the Cyprus Arc as a straightforward zone of

, where northward

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second p ...

of the Neo-Tethys oceanic

lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time ...

beneath the

closed the eastern Mediterranean basin. In that view, the Eratosthenes Seamount—a

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...

of extended

continental crust Continental crust is the layer of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as '' continental shelves''. This layer is sometimes called '' si ...

—was thrust northward under the arc, uplifting the Troodos and eventually obducting slices of oceanic crust (

ophiolite An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed, and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks. The Greek word ὄφις, ''ophis'' (''snake'') is ...

) onto the seamount's continental edge.

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

measurements, however, show that

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

is moving predominantly westward—at rates that increase from eastern Anatolia towards the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

—contradicting the simple compression model. This westward motion is attributed to

rollback In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, ...

of the

Ionia Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who ...

n subduction and consequent

back-arc The back-arc region is the area behind a volcanic arc. In island arc, island volcanic arcs, it consists of back-arc basins of oceanic crust with abyssal zone, abyssal depths, which may be separated by remnant arcs, similar to island arcs. In conti ...

extension in the Aegean region.

Composite deformation and geological evidence

Rather than a single, narrow fault line, deformation spreads across a -wide zone east of the arc, forming a network of faults with both

transtension Transtension is the state in which a rock mass or area of the Earth's crust (geology), crust experiences both ''extensive'' and ''transtensive'' Shear (geology), shear. As such, transtensional regions are characterised by both extensional structures ...

al (extension plus strike-slip) and

transpression In geology, transpression is a type of Strike-slip fault, strike-slip deformation that deviates from simple shear because of a simultaneous component of shortening perpendicular to the fault plane. This movement ends up resulting in oblique shear. ...

al (compression plus strike-slip) character. Evidence for extension includes normal fault-related

salt diapir A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when salt (or other evaporite minerals) intrudes into overlying rocks in a process known as diapirism. Salt domes can have unique surface and subsurface structures, and they can be discovered usin ...

s in the

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

basin and numerous extensional earthquake faulting south of Anatolia. Conversely,

sinistral Sinistral and dextral, in some scientific fields, are the two types of chirality ("handedness") or relative direction. The terms are derived from the Latin words for "left" (''sinister'') and "right" (''dexter''). Other disciplines use different ...

(left-lateral) transpressional earthquakes have been recorded off southwestern Cyprus and the Florence Rise.

Seismic reflection Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismi ...

profiles reveal typical "flower" structures where strike-slip and normal faults co-exist.

Bathymetric Bathymetry (; ) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors ('' seabed topography''), river floors, or lake floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The first recorded evidence of water ...

mapping of the

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

basin further shows it links the Hellenic and Cyprus arcs through strike-slip and

reverse fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic f ...

segments, while

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

s on the Eratosthenes Seamount indicate it has downfaulted and subsided since the early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

–early Senonian

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...

ing age of the Troodos Ophiolite matches the timing of regional extensional phases, confirming that ophiolite emplacement occurred during a period of complex, multi-stage deformation.

Regional context and evolution

The Cyprus Arc forms part of a wider system of arcuate

zones, including the Calabrian and Hellenic arcs, which migrated during closure of the Neo-Tethys seaway. The ongoing westward escape of the Anatolian Plate—driven by collision with the Arabian promontory—has accelerated Aegean extension both east–west and north–south. As the last marine remnant of the Tethys contracts, the Levant basin will continue to shorten, Cyprus will migrate southwestward, the Cilician basin will widen, and Anatolia will advance further west. This dynamic setting makes the Cyprus Arc a natural laboratory for studying how compression, extension and strike-slip processes can interact over small distances to reshape continental margins.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite journal , last1=Mart , first1=Yossi , last2=Ryan , first2=William B.F. , title=The complex tectonic regime of the Cyprus Arc: A short review , journal=Israel Journal of Earth Sciences , volume=51 , issue=3–4 , year=2002 , doi=10.1560/DCF4-08Q2-UF1U-6QK5 , pages=117–134 , url=http://www.sciencefromisrael.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1560/DCF4-08Q2-UF1U-6QK5, url-access=subscription Geology of Cyprus