Full Description

Special Publication 156

The coexistence in space and time of growing mountain belts and actively extending basins poses a number of yet unsolved questions in terms of mechanics. This problem is particularly crucial in the Mediterranean regions, where all Cenozoic basins opened in the internal zones of mountain belts. The Tyrrhenian Sea opened in the back-arc region of the Apennines, the Aegean Sea in the back-arc domain of the Hellenides and Hellenic arc, the Pannonian Basin behind the Carpathians and the Alboran Sea between the Betics and the Rif. In some examples such as the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Aegean Sea, extension is ongoing while peripheral compression and convergence are active. The Alboran Sea and Pannonian Basin are now in a compression stage.Several models have been proposed to explain this coexistence of compression and extension: slab retreat during subduction process, detachments of a deep lithospheric root under the internal zones leading to radial extension and peripheral compression and slab detachments. This volume brings together contributions from geologists and geophysicists in the quest to solve the complex dynamic problem posed by the Mediterranean region. It presents a wealth of new data on various topics centred on the Mediterranean region from the deep mantle structure to the detailed geometry of sedimentary basins.This book results for the Integrated Basins Studies Project, which was funded by the European Commission and which involved the collaboration of over 200 researchers across Europe. A sister volume has been published - Cenozoic Foreland Basins of Western Europe.