Category: Seminars & talks
Date: 2024-01-17 12:00
Eastern Mediterranean recent geodynamics: paradigms, paradoxes and proposals
- David Fernández-Blanco, tectonics & structural geologist
- January 17, 2024 | 12:00 h CET
- Online y GEO3BCN-CSIC’s conference room.
Abstract
Currently enclosing the fastest plate motions, largest seismicity, and biggest relief gradients of the Western Alpine-Himalayan range, the East Mediterranean recent geodynamics are captivating. The paradigm used to explain this active tectonism is subduction orogeny; i.e., the negative buoyancy of the subducting slab results in subduction rates higher than convergence rates, and thereby, trench retreat and localized orogeny at the front of the subduction systems. However, this paradigm presents several paradoxes; for example, the architecture of the Cyprian and Hellenic structural arcs lacks a clear frontal trust and accretionary wedge, the seismicity is reduced or misallocated in relation to active subduction, and the slabs are detached, broken or misplaced. I present key evidence, in the Eurasian and African plates, onshore and offshore (Cyprus and Hellenic arcs; Mediterranean Ridge; North Libya; Suez Rift), that support the alternative tectonic models I propose; incipient continental collision throughout the East Mediterranean, and the recent constitution of the Anatolian-Aegean plate. I defend these proposals explaining how they solve the paradoxes and contrasting them with other explanations used, and the current understanding of the recent geodynamics of the East Mediterranean.
List of Dates
- 2024-01-17 12:00