Syn- and post-collisional sedimentation and volcanic activity, Mesta half Graben, Bulgaria

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Tom McCann
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2006 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 19658174

• Final Report Year: 2009

Final Report Abstract

The Mesta Basin underwent a broadly 3-stage development in Palaeogene times. An initial alluvial setting developed in an axial through-drainage half-graben. This was followed by a mixed alluvial-volcaniclastic environment, which commenced with the formation of volcanic centres (i.e. caldera settings in the S of the basin), related to a stage of rapid infilling of the previous basin topography. This was succeeded by a period of waning volcanic activity characterized by alternating alluvial and volcaniclastic depositional cycles. The overall facies architecture in the basin was influenced by the interaction between the interdigitating basin margin fans and the fluvial through-drainage system, compartmentalization by intrabasinal faults and the relative distance to the volcanic centres. The main „surprise" was the fact that the previously published stratigraphies of the region were not reliable, and that the observed stratigraphy was considerably more complex and in need of review.

Publications

• 2007. A mixed Palaeogene volcaniclasticsiliciclastic succession from the Mesta Basin (SW Bulgaria): facies analysis and implications for the reconstruction of explosive eruoption cycles. Sediment 2007, Bochum, September 2007
  Fischer, A., McCann, T. & Siemes, A.
  
• 2007. The Palaeogene alluvial-volcaniclastic basin fill of the Mesta Basin (SW Bulgaria): facies analysis and implications for basin evolution. Sediment 2007, Bochum, September 2007
  Siemes, A., McCann, T. & Fischer, A.
  
• 2009. Alluvial facies in the northern part of the Mesta Basin (SW Bulgaria): lithology, structure and depositional setting. Tectonics & Sedimentation, Bonn, February 2009
  Ebinghaus, A., McCann, T.
  
• 2009. Basin evolution of the northern part of the Mesta Basin, SW Bulgaria. Tectonics & Sedimentation, Bonn, February 2009
  Temme, A., McCann, T.
  
• 2009. Palaeogene volcaniclastic sediments from the Mesta Basin (SW Bulgaria). Tectonics & Sedimentation, Bonn, February 2009
  Fischer, A. & McCann, T.