Free University, Netherlands

Recent ODP traverse of boreholes on the northern flank of Eratosthenes Seamount in the eastern Mediterranean Sea encountered shallow marine carbonates of mid-Cretaceous (?) age, overlain first by bathyal chalks of Coniacian-Maastrichtian and Eocene ages, then by shallow-marine limestones of Miocene age. The succession is similar to that of the southern Levant, but is markedly different from southern Cyprus. The results suggest that Eratosthenes Seamount formed part of the divergent African margin during the Mesozoic. It was submerged in the Late Cretaceous, then uplifted by the Miocene. Neogene subduction along the Cyprean active margin brought the Eratosthenes Seamount into incipient collision with Cyprus.