| New multi-channel seismic data were acquired by Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) over the Rhodes Basin, eastern Mediterranean Sea, during the summer of 2001. Imaging challenges imposed by the deep water depth, short receiver array and channel and frequency specific noise were overcome by careful data processing. The final processed data generally yields good image quality for the first 1.5 seconds below the seabed with significant improvements in areas where the geology is simple and the Pliocene-Quaternary basin fill is thick.; The Rhodes Basin is a deep (∼4400 m) bathymetric trough located near the junction between the Hellenic and Cyprus Arcs. On the basis of this study, two major seismic-stratigraphic units are identified and described in detail: a pre-late Miocene unit (Eocene-Miocene) and a Pliocene-Quaternary unit separated by a laterally extensive unconformity, interpreted in this work as the M reflector. Hence, unlike most of the eastern Mediterranean, the Rhodes Basin has not preserved its Messinian stratigraphy (e.g., Messinian evaporites). This suggests that, since the late Miocene, it developed somewhat independently from the remainder of the eastern Mediterranean since the late Miocene.; Analysis of structural and stratigraphic architectures reveals that the Rhodes Basin can be divided into three structural domains: (a) Domain 1---the heavily sheared plateau, (b) Domain 2---the folded and faulted deep Rhodes Basin and (c) Domain 3---the Turkish continental slope. |
