The Kathikas mélange, SW Cyprus: late Cretaceous submarine debris flows

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Abstract
The Maastrichtian Kathikas mélange is shown to be of sedimentary origin, being a succession of undeformed, submarine, matrix‐supported debris‐flow deposits up to 270 m thick. Internal sedimentological features include beds emphasized by colour or clast size variation, pelagic chalk interbeds, planar clast fabrics and channels. A trend of upwards‐thinning beds in the mélange is interpreted as due to debris‐flow initiation on gradually increasing slopes. Debris was shed locally from the deformed and fragmented Mamonia Complex, a series of disrupted gravity‐slide sheets of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and deformed igneous rocks. All Mamonia lithologies are represented in the mélange, and local facies variations permit identification of individual sources. The mélange probably pre‐dates emplacement of serpentinite into the Mamonia Complex. There was also local inter‐mixing of material from the adjacent and underlying Troodos sequences. The mélange rests unconformably on both Mamonia and Troodos sequences, and formed after the main deformation episode of the Mamonia Complex. The degree of resedimentation increases gradually away from the disrupted Mamonia source rocks. The thickness and volume of the Kathikas mélange are comparable with those of recent submarine debris flow deposits on unstable or seismically active continental margins.