Middle-Late Pleistocene to Holocene sediments of the Tremithos River and related shallow-marine to non-marine coastal deposits in SE Cyprus: Products of inter-related surface uplift and glacio-eustatic controlled sea-level change

Abstract

The Pleistocene development of the Tremithos River exemplifies interacting controls of fluvial and shallow-marine sedimentation. The overall driver was domal uplift of southern Cyprus, focused on the ophiolitic Troodos Massif. Middle-Upper Pleistocene fluvial sediments accumulated under the dominant influences of glacio-eustatic and related climatic changes. Early-Middle Pleistocene is preserved as remnant surfaces and rounded erosional hills. Late Pleistocene-Holocene saw pulsed incision that deepened and narrowed the channel, mainly in the upper reaches. Meanders developed in the middle reaches. A broad, shallow channel formed in the lower reaches, passing into a coastal plain and a broad delta, affected by cyclical marine transgressions and regressions. Following incision events, coarse, poorly sorted conglomerates accumulated under high-energy stream flow in a cool, wet climate, generally correlated with glacial periods. Channel fill was mainly achieved by more persistent, lower energy stream flow in semi-braided channels, coupled with overbank deposition. Common well-rounding of highly resistant lithologies (e.g. chert) within a c. 30 km-long river suggests some recycling from older terrace deposits. Chalky colluvium formed by slope wasting of nearby chalk and marl, mainly during cool, humid periods. Reddish terra rossa paleosols mainly record relatively warm, stable, humid periods. Bedrock lithologies (e.g. diabase, chert) exerted a strong influence on clast lithology and shape. Younger fluvial deposits are coeval with Holocene shallow-marine terrigenous sediments and carbonates (including solitary coral) in coastal areas. Some previously reported shallow-marine sands are reinterpreted as aeolianites. Locally, deposition was influenced by surface uplift along a near-coastal strike-slip fault, related to oblique convergence of the Africa-Eurasia plates.