Active Tectonics of the Mediterranean Region

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.