A giant catastrophic mud‐and‐debris flow in the Miocene Makran

We challenge the former interpretation of the ‘sedimentary mélange’ of the Makran accretionary complex as a tectonic mélange diapirically emplaced from below and provide evidence for its sedimentary gravitational emplacement from the north during Tortonian–Messinian times (between 11.8 and 5.8 Ma). It is an olistostrome that includes blocks of ophiolites and oceanic sediments derived from the ‘coloured mélange’ to the north, and reworked chunks of the turbidites on which it rests with an erosional truncation. The chaotic scattering of blocks of any size and lithology and the weak, soft‐sediment deformation of the matrix argue against a tectonic emplacement of the chaotic formation. Its size and internal structure, together with the size of the individual blocks, make the olistostrome a fossil equivalent of the large, gravitationally emplaced debris flows observed along present‐day continental margins and unstable volcanic edifices.