First order kinematic elements in Tunisia and the Pelagian block

Abstract

The effects of post-collisional deformation in Tunisia and the Pelagian block are shown to be pervasively distributed over wide areas (major structural provinces of the peri-Mediterranean mountain chains) or localized in narrow belts (major structural boundaries). A redefinition and reinterpretation of the Tell and Atlas provinces, the north-south axis and the Gafsa-Tozeur belts in Tunisia and the “rift zone” in the Strait of Sicily help to understand both the tectonic significance of distinctive structural associations which in the past were thought to be not compatible with the kinematics of the Europe-Africa system in Neogene time and their role as first-order kinematic elements during the post-collisional deformation history of the central Mediterranean region.