Active Tectonics of the Mediterranean Region

TLDR

Examination of over 100 fault‑plane solutions in the Alpide belt reveals that present deformation is driven by small continental plates moving away from Eastern Turkey and Western Iran, a pattern that likely also shaped older mountain belts. These estimates are then used to reconstruct the geometry of the Mediterranean 10 million years ago. The reconstructed 10‑million‑year‑old geometry shows that the plates’ movement consumes the Eastern Mediterranean sea floor, preventing crustal thickening, and that the former smooth curved coast of Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey has since been distorted by the Aegean and Turkish plates.

Abstract

Examination of more than 100 fault plane solutions for earthquakes within the Alpide belt between the Mid-Atlantic ridge and Eastern Iran shows that the deformation at present occurring is the result of small continental plates moving away from Eastern Turkey and Western Iran. This pattern of movement avoids thickening the continental crust over much of Turkey by consuming the Eastern Mediterranean sea floor instead. The rates of relative motion of two of the small plates involved, the Aegean and the Turkish plates, are estimated, but are only within perhaps 50 per cent of the true values. These estimates are then used to reconstruct the geometry of the Mediterranean 10 million years ago. The principal difference from the present geometry is the smooth curved coast which then formed the southern coast of Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. This coast has since been distorted by the motion of the two small plates. Similar complications have probably been common in older mountain belts, and therefore local geological features may not have been formed by the motion between major plates.