The Aegean: A natural laboratory for tectonics

Abstract

The Aegean, a young and active tectonic region, is a natural laboratory for analyzing many tectonic processes that occur in backarc extensional regimes, and the correlation of these processes from landscape development to deeper mantle dynamics. Cenozoic development of the Aegean region was dominated by subduction beneath Europe and coeval upper plate extension modified by westward extrusion of Anatolia. Intraorogenic and backarc extension began during early Cenozoic time within the Balkans and NW Turkey during closure of the Vardar ocean. Extension was manifested by core complex formation and a change in volcanism caused by the evolution of the lithosphere and mantle wedge. Following a short period of local (?) shortening in ~ early Miocene time, regional extension began and continued to the present. Within the Hellenides, E-W extension and the subduction zone migrated westward as thick and thin crustal units were progressively accreted and were complexly rotated up to 40° CW. Within the eastern Balkans and NW Turkey, N-S extension migrated westward and southward, and in the Aegean the volcanic arc and subduction zone migrated southward. Turkish crustal elements rotated complexly CCW, which in concert with the CW rotation in the Hellenides increased the curvature of the subduction zone and lengthened the orogen causing greater subsidence and extension in the Aegean Sea. Westward extrusion of Anatolia from the Arabian collision zone was enhanced by slab roll back in west moving Aegean crust more rapidly westward. Abundant evidence supports slab rollback at different velocities along the subduction zone. In Pliocene time, the North Anatolian fault crossed the Hellenides in a complex transtensional zone and a diffuse zone of left-lateral shear crossed western Turkey at present isolating a relatively undeforming Aegean plate. Major tectonic questions include: What is the geometry and fate of subducted slabs?, How much crust is accreted during subduction of thick and thin crust?, Does crustal accretion cause slab break off or only changes in slab dip?, How does the mantle wedge evolve and how is this expressed in the volcanism?, How much lateral mantle flow occurs during changes in slab geometry and rotation of crustal elements?, and What is the relation of mantle and crustal structure to first order landscape development?