Evolution of a Mesozoic passive continental margin: Baër-Bassit (NW Syria)

Summary The Baër-Bassit area comprises imbricate sheets of ophiolities and pelagic sedimentary rocks thrust eastward onto the Arabian platform. Deep-water sediments were deposited from Late Triassic to Mid-Cretaceous time (Cenomanian/Turonian). Triassic sediments consist of marls and Halobia-bearing limestones. From Jurassic to Cenomanian the deposits were siliceous mudstones, siltstones and cherts. Comparisons with the pelagic sediments of the Mamonia Complex (Cyprus) and the Antalya Complex (Turkey) show that the three areas in the East Mediterranean had a similar evolution from Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous time. In the Upper Triassic there was continental rifting and formation of oceanic crust in a rift similar to the Red Sea. The opening was more marked in the west than in the east. This was followed by subsidence and sedimentation of siliceous rocks from Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous. Per-alkaline volcanism took place in the Baër-Bassit area at this time. Sedimentation stopped in Hauterivian time in Cyprus, in the Cenomanian/Turonian in Syria, and during Late Cretaceous in Antalya. Sedimentation related to closure of the oceanic basin still remains to be defined.