In the framework of the late Alpide deformation of Greece and of the recent and active extensional tectonism of the Aegean region, the geotectonic evolution of Thessaly region (Central-Northern Greece) has been examined based on quantitative and qualitative structural analysis and using stratigraphic, sedimentological, morphotectonic and seismological data. The geometry of the faults, their architecture and the knowledge of the stress pattern are used to explain some aspects of the tectonics and crustal dynamics of Thessaly and surroundings. The oldest compressional phases taken into account show a mean ENE-WSW direction of shortening and have been defined as late-Alpide (Early Aquitanian and Langhian). A later (Late Miocene-Pliocene) NE-SW extensional phase has been related to the Hellenic post-orogenic collapse which develops behind the collisional front between the Aegean (Eurasia) and African plates. This phenomenon diachronically migrates from the east (Central Macedonia, Thermaikos Basin) towards the west (Epirus, Albania) where it is still active. As a consequence of this second phase, the area forms a basin-and-range-like structure. The third and last phase (Middle Pleistocene-Present) is characterized by a N-S direction of extension and affects the whole Aegean region. It generates new E-W trending basins superimposed on the inherited ones thus giving as a final result, the complex blocky crustal pattern we can actually observe. The recent and active right-lateral strike-slip movements along the North Aegean Trough seem to stop in the Sporades Basin and do not affect the uppermost crust of mainland Greece. A further WNW-ESE directed extension observed occasionally in Central and Northern Greece could be explained as local events or as block-related deformation.
Late Cainozoic geodynamic evolution of Thessaly and surroundings (Central-Northern Greece)
CAPUTO, Riccardo;
1993
Abstract
In the framework of the late Alpide deformation of Greece and of the recent and active extensional tectonism of the Aegean region, the geotectonic evolution of Thessaly region (Central-Northern Greece) has been examined based on quantitative and qualitative structural analysis and using stratigraphic, sedimentological, morphotectonic and seismological data. The geometry of the faults, their architecture and the knowledge of the stress pattern are used to explain some aspects of the tectonics and crustal dynamics of Thessaly and surroundings. The oldest compressional phases taken into account show a mean ENE-WSW direction of shortening and have been defined as late-Alpide (Early Aquitanian and Langhian). A later (Late Miocene-Pliocene) NE-SW extensional phase has been related to the Hellenic post-orogenic collapse which develops behind the collisional front between the Aegean (Eurasia) and African plates. This phenomenon diachronically migrates from the east (Central Macedonia, Thermaikos Basin) towards the west (Epirus, Albania) where it is still active. As a consequence of this second phase, the area forms a basin-and-range-like structure. The third and last phase (Middle Pleistocene-Present) is characterized by a N-S direction of extension and affects the whole Aegean region. It generates new E-W trending basins superimposed on the inherited ones thus giving as a final result, the complex blocky crustal pattern we can actually observe. The recent and active right-lateral strike-slip movements along the North Aegean Trough seem to stop in the Sporades Basin and do not affect the uppermost crust of mainland Greece. A further WNW-ESE directed extension observed occasionally in Central and Northern Greece could be explained as local events or as block-related deformation.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
