Plate Tectonics of the Mediterranean

Xavier Le Pichon

The present Mediterranean basins are small oceanic crust basins, surrounded by thinned continental margins. They were initially formed through extensional processes within the framework of a broadly collisional regime between Africa and Eurasia. The Eastern Mediterranean was most probably formed during the Cretaceous for the most part. This area is rapidly subducted below the Hellenic arc at least since the middle Miocene and most probably since the Oligocene, and active extension has fragmented the Aegean continent since the middle Miocene. The Western Mediterranean basins were formed during the Neogene and are not yet affected by subduction. The formation of the Western Mediterranean basins presents analogies with the still-active formations of the Aegean basins. Both sets of basins resulted from extension behind a retreating subduction zone. On the other hand, the Eastern Mediterranean basin was generated by rifting between Africa and the Apulian landmass. In all cases, this complex process of successive creations and destructions of extensional basins correspond to dynamic adjustments by continuous redistribution of the oceanic space within the collisional zone.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.