A comprehensive tectonic analysis of the Eratosthenes Seamount (ESM) and its surrounding domains covered by our seismic data, contributes to better understanding of the evolution of the eastern Mediterranean. Tectonic origins of the ESM and the Zohr-like sub-Messinian salt highs between the ESM and the Nile delta are both continental fragments detached from the African-Arabian plate. These continental fragments form a NE-SW striking tectonic belt acting as the western margin of the Levant basin. After the Neotethyan rift, isolated carbonate platforms grew on these continental fragments and existed until the Miocene with alternations of shallow-water and deep-water carbonates caused by sea-level variation in the eastern Mediterranean. The subduction beneath the Cyprus arc beginning in the Early Miocene triggered onset of tectonic inversion of the deep-water area of the eastern Mediterranean. The ESM shielded the Zohr-like platforms from deforming by assimilating compressional stress from the Miocene subduction and the Messinian-present collision through its own folding, which led to tectonic evolutionary discrepancy between the Eratosthenes and the Zohr-like platforms since the Early Miocene. In addition, syn-sedimentary folding deformations related to the subduction were recognized in the southern Levant basin, the Herodotus eastern sub-basin, and the Cyprus arc. These deformations were all intense in the Early Miocene, attenuated gradually in the Middle and Late Miocene, and terminated at the very beginning of the Messinian. The weakening of these deformations could be associated with an increase in the subduction angle which also induced the development of the Mid-Late Miocene normal faults in the northern Levant basin. The initial African–Eurasian collision in the Messinian terminated these subduction-related deformations. Finally, we proposed a new evolutionary model of the deep-water area of the eastern Mediterranean, consisting of four stages, i.e. the Neotethyan rift stage from the Late Permian to the Early Jurassic, the post-rift tectonic stability stage from the Middle Jurassic Bajocian to the Oligocene, the subduction-related compression stage during the Miocene, and the collision-related compression-transpression stage from the Messinian to the present.

对我们的地震数据所涵盖的Eratosthenes海山（ESM）及其周围区域的全面构造分析有助于更好地了解东地中海的演化。ESM的构造起源以及ESM和尼罗河三角洲之间的Zohr状的亚美西尼亚次高盐都是从非洲-阿拉伯板块分离出来的大陆碎片。这些大陆性碎片形成了NE-SW撞击构造带，成为黎凡特盆地西缘。在新特提斯裂谷之后，孤立的碳酸盐台地在这些大陆碎片上生长并存在，直到中新世为止，地中海东部海平面变化引起浅水和深水碳酸盐交替。从中新世初期开始，塞浦路斯弧线下方的俯冲引发了地中海东部深水区的构造反转。ESM通过自身折叠来吸收中新世俯冲和Messinian碰撞带来的压应力，从而保护了Zohr状平台不变形，这导致了自中新世以来Eratosthenes和Zohr状平台之间的构造演化差异。此外，同步与俯冲有关的沉积褶皱变形在南部黎凡特盆地，希罗多德斯东部次盆地和赛普勒斯弧中得到确认。这些变形在中新世早期都强烈，在中新世中后期逐渐减弱，并在墨西尼开始时就终止了。这些变形的减弱可能与俯冲角的增加有关，俯冲角也引起了黎凡特盆地北部中新世中晚期正断层的发育。最初在墨西尼发生的非洲-欧亚碰撞终止了与俯冲有关的变形。最后，我们提出了地中海东部深水区的新演化模型，该模型包括四个阶段，即从二叠纪晚期到侏罗纪早期的新特提斯裂谷阶段，