Abstract
Tectonic activity in the Mediterranean area (involving migrations of old orogenic belts, formation of basins and building of orogenic systems) has been determined by the convergence of the confining plates (Nubia, Arabia and Eurasia). Such convergence has been mainly accommodated by the consumption of oceanic and thinned continental domains, triggered by the lateral escapes of orogenic wedges. Here, we argue that the implications of the above basic concepts can allow plausible explanations for the very complex time-space distribution of tectonic processes in the study area, with particular regard to the development of Trench-Arc-Back Arc systems. In the late Oligocene and lower–middle Miocene, the consumption of the eastern Alpine Tethys oceanic domain was caused by the eastward to SE ward migration/bending of the Alpine–Iberian belt, driven by the Nubia–Eurasia convergence. The crustal stretching that developed in the wake of that migrating Arc led to formation of the Balearic basin, whereas accretionary activity along the trench zone formed the Apennine belt. Since the collision of the Anatolian–Aegean–Pelagonian system (extruding westward in response to the indentation of the Arabian promontory) with the Nubia-Adriatic continental domain, around the late Miocene–early Pliocene, the tectonic setting in the central Mediterranean area underwent a major reorganization, aimed at activating a less resisted shortening pattern, which led to the consumption of the remnant oceanic and thinned continental domains in the central Mediterranean area.
Highlights
In the Oligocene, the Adriatic continental core was surrounded by the remnants of a formerly vast oceanic (Alpine, Ionian and Levantine Tethys) and thinned continental domains (Figure 1A)
This kind of tectonic mechanism may have determined the consumption of the remnants of the Alpine Tethys oceanic domain and the consequent formation of the Balearic basin
The development of this Trench-Arc-Back Arc (TABA) system started when the Alpine–Iberian belt collided with the Nubian continental domain
Summary
Since the Oligocene, the tectonic and morphological configuration of the Mediterranean region (Figure 1A) has considerably changed (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]), involving long migrations (even greater than 1000 km) and strong distortions of old and new orogenic belts (hereafter Arcs) and the formation of extensional zones backwards of the migrating belts (Back-Arc basins, Figure 1B). Accretionary activity along the outer against the continental Adriatic domain causes the end of crustal extension in the Liguro–Provencal front of the migrating Arc led to the formation of the Apennine belt. Sardinia block (e.g., [142] and references therein) caused crustal extension and subsidence in the interposed Alpine–Apennine belt, leading to the formation of the Northern Tyrrhenian basin (Figure 5) This interpretation can explain the starting time of crustal extension (following the Tortonian activation of the Giudicarie fault system), the location of extension (between two diverging domains) and the reason why during the formation of that basin the adjacent Northern Apennines underwent dominant subsidence and extension (being located on the subsiding margin of Adria [10,11,12]).
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