Journal ArticleDOI
Alpine inversion of the North African margin and delamination of its continental lithosphere
TLDR
In this article, the authors propose a new model of delamination of the continental lithosphere for the Apennines and the Aegean arcs, supporting the hypothesis that both the Apulia/Adriatic domain and the Eastern Mediterranean Basin still belong to the former southern continental margin of the Tethys.Abstract:
[1] This paper aims at summarizing the current extent and architecture of the former Mesozoic passive margin of North Africa from North Algeria in the west up to the Ionian-Calabrian arc and adjacent Mediterranean Ridge in the east. Despite that most paleogeographic models consider that the Eastern Mediterranean Basin as a whole is still underlain by remnants of the Permo-Triassic or a younger Cretaceous Tethyan-Mesogean ocean, the strong similarities documented here in structural styles and timing of inversion between the Saharan Atlas, Sicilian Channel and the Ionian abyssal plain evidence that this portion of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin still belongs to the distal portion of the North African continental margin. A rim of Tethyan ophiolitic units can be also traced more or less continuously from Turkey and Cyprus in the east, in onshore Crete, in the Pindos in Greece and Mirdita in Albania, as well as in the Western Alps, Corsica and the Southern Apennines in the west, supporting the hypothesis that both the Apulia/Adriatic domain and the Eastern Mediterranean Basin still belong to the former southern continental margin of the Tethys. Because there is no clear evidence of crustal-scale fault offsetting the Moho, but more likely a continuous yet folded Moho extending between the foreland and the hinterland beneath the Mediterranean arcs, we propose here a new model of delamination of the continental lithosphere for the Apennines and the Aegean arcs. In this model, only the mantle lithosphere of Apulia and the Eastern Mediterranean is still locally subducted and recycled in the asthenosphere, most if not all the northern portion of the African crust and coeval Moho being currently decoupled from its former, currently delaminated and subducted mantle lithosphere.read more
Citations
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Tectono-stratigraphic and kinematic evolution of the southern Apennines/Calabria–Peloritani Terrane system (Italy)
Stefano Vitale,Sabatino Ciarcia +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors obtained a kinematic estimations of the southern Apennines/Calabria-Peloritani terrane system evolution from the Late Oligocene to Recent.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Tell-Rif orogenic system (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and the structural heritage of the southern Tethys margin
Rémi Leprêtre,Rémi Leprêtre,Dominique Frizon de Lamotte,Violaine Combier,Oriol Gimeno-Vives,Geoffroy Mohn,Remi Eschard +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a geodynamic model for the Tell-Rif orogenic system based on the analysis of surface and sub-surface data and propose a reinterpretation of its present-day geometry in terms of geodynamic evolution.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Ionian and Alfeo–Etna fault zones: New segments of an evolving plate boundary in the central Mediterranean Sea?
Alina Polonia,Luigi Torelli,Andrea Artoni,Mirko Carlini,Claudio Faccenna,Luana Ferranti,Luca Gasperini,Rob Govers,Dirk Klaeschen,Carmen Monaco,Giovanni Neri,Nicolai Nijholt,Barbara Orecchio,Rinus Wortel +13 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed multichannel seismic reflection profiles and showed that the Ionian Fault and the AEF are transfer crustal tectonic features bounding a complex deformation zone, which produces the downthrown of the Western lobe along a set of transtensive fault strands.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Ionian Sea: The oldest in situ ocean fragment of the world?
TL;DR: In this article, the magnetic anomaly pattern of the Ionian Sea and compare it to synthetic fields produced by a geopotential field generator, considering realistic crust geometry are analyzed, and the results show that the latter model best approximate magnetic features observed on the abyssal plain and at the western basin boundary.
Journal ArticleDOI
Post‐20 Ma Motion of the Adriatic Plate: New Constraints From Surrounding Orogens and Implications for Crust‐Mantle Decoupling
TL;DR: In this paper, a new kinematic reconstruction that incorporates estimates of post-20 Ma shortening and extension in the Apennines, Alps, Dinarides, and Sicily Channel Rift Zone (SCRZ) reveals that the Adriatic microplate (Adria) rotated counterclockwise as it subducted beneath the European Plate to the west and to the east, while indenting the Alps to the north.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Extension in the Tyrrhenian Sea and Shortening in the Apennines as Result of Arc Migration Driven by Sinking of the Lithosphere
TL;DR: In this paper, an arc migration model was proposed to explain the dynamic relationship between extension in the Tyrrhenian basin and compression in the Apennines, and the estimated contemporaneous (post-middle Miocene) amounts of extension and shortening in the apennines appear to be very similar.
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Subduction and Slab Detachment in the Mediterranean-Carpathian Region
M. J. R. Wortel,Wim Spakman +1 more
TL;DR: Seismic tomography models of the three-dimensional upper mantle velocity structure of the Mediterranean-Carpathian region provide a better understanding of the lithospheric processes governing its geodynamical evolution.
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Extensional collapse of orogens
TL;DR: The extensional collapse of orogens offers a partial explanation for why oceans cyclically close and reopen in roughly the same places, preservation of very high pressure metamorphic rocks, for the return of orogenic large crustal thicknesses to normal without very much erosional denudation.
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The hellenic arc and trench system: A key to the neotectonic evolution of the eastern mediterranean area
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the fault plane mechanisms of shallow earthquakes along the Hellenic arc and the extent of the intermediate seismic belt to make a quantitative estimate of the relative motion occurring between the Hellenians arc and adjacent sea floor.
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Mediterranean extension and the Africa‐Eurasia collision
Laurent Jolivet,Claudio Faccenna +1 more
TL;DR: A number of tectonic events occurred contemporaneously in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East 30-25 Myr ago as discussed by the authors, which are contemporaneous to or immediately followed a strong reduction of the northward absolute motion of Africa.