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ELSEVIER Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 On the post-25 Ma geodynamic evolution of the western Mediterranean Erwan Gueguen a , Carlo Doglioni b,Ł , Manuel Fernandez c b a Centro di Geodinamica, Università, Via Anzio, 85100 Potenza, Italy Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università La Sapienza, P. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy c CSIC, Institute of Earth Sciences, Jaume Almera, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Abstract During the Neogene and Quaternary western Mediterranean geodynamics were dominated by the ‘eastward’ migration of the Apenninic arc and associated back-arc basins. The migration was controlled by retreat of the Apenninic slab and was associated with ‘boudinage’ of the lithosphere in the back-arc area. Palaeo-reconstruction of the kinematics of the arc suggests about 775 km of migration from the Late Oligocene to present along a transect from the Gulf of Lions to Calabria. A maximum of 135 km of N–S converge occurred between Africa and Europe during the same time span. The western Mediterranean was thus mainly shaped by the migration of the slab related to west-directed subduction. It is hypothesized that minor N–S convergence deformed the arc but was not the cause of its formation. 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: post-25 Ma; geodynamic evolution; western Mediterranean; ‘roll-back’; marginal basins 1. Introduction The Mediterranean area has always been a complicated puzzle for the geodynamic reconstructions. The main geodynamic factor controlling Mediterranean tectonics has usually been considered to be the relative motion of Africa and Europe as a consequence of different spreading rates along the Atlantic oceanic ridge. However, in spite of regularly E– W-oriented transform faults in the Atlantic oceanic crust, N–S convergence between Africa and Europe has been postulated as the main force shaping the Mediterranean since the Late Cretaceous. Since the paper by Argand (1916), the Alpine orogen was conŁ Corresponding author. Tel.: C39 (06) 4991-4549; Fax: C39 (06) 4454-729; E-mail: [email protected] sidered to relate to collision between the Adriatic, or African, promontory and Europe. This historical heritage has strongly influenced many tectonic reconstructions of the Mediterranean region. Differently oriented tectonic features like the Tyrrhenian Sea or the Apennines were interpreted in a context of general N–S convergence (e.g. Boccaletti and Dainelli, 1982; and many others), proposing that the N–S push was responsible for the eastward escape, or ‘extrusion’, of the Apennines (e.g. Tapponnier, 1977). In this paper we propose four steps (23 Ma, 10 Ma, 5 Ma, present) for the Neogene to recent overall tectonic evolution of the western Mediterranean area. This study integrates previous results published on this topic (Gueguen et al., 1997; Doglioni et al., 1997a,b), and represents an alternative hypothesis to the generally accepted con- 0040-1951/98/$19.00 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 4 0 - 1 9 5 1 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 8 9 - 9 260 E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 cept that western Mediterranean geodynamics were mainly shaped by N–S Africa–Europe convergence. We see this as secondary to a dominant influence of a west-to-east migrating Apenninic arc system. A similar tectonic setting applies to the Caribbean arc related to the west-directed Barbados subduction zone. The southern arm of the arc was deformed by N–S convergence of the South America plate with respect to the back-arc region while the Barbados arc migrated eastward at a faster rate. 2. Geodynamic setting of the western Mediterranean The opening of the western Mediterranean mainly took place in the last 30 Ma, with genesis of irregular basins which migrated in age from west to east. The basins developed in the Late Oligocene–Early Miocene in the westernmost parts (Alboran, Valencia and Provençal basins; Maldonado et al., 1992; Roca and Desegaulx, 1992; Comas et al., 1993; Gueguen et al., 1993; Watts et al., 1993; Roca, 1994; Gueguen, 1995; Fernandez et al., 1995; Docherty and Banda, 1995), becoming progressively younger eastwards: i.e. Middle–Late Miocene in the eastern Balearic and Algerian basins (Roca and Desegaulx, 1992; Sàbat et al., 1997), up to Late Miocene and Plio– Pleistocene in the Tyrrhenian basin (Kastens et al., 1988; and references therein). The opening of these basins was contemporaneous and located in the back-arc region of the ‘eastward’ retreating Apennines–Maghrebides subduction zone. The arc migrated about 800 km ‘eastward’ from the Late Oligocene to present. The extension in the western Mediterranean and the growth of the Apenninic arc developed in the general frame of slow convergence between Africa and Europe, mainly after a terminal collisional episode in the Pyrenees at 20 Ma (Mattauer and Séguret, 1971; Viallard, 1978, 1979). The direction of Africa–Europe relative motion is still under debate. Most reconstructions show directions of relative motion spanning northwest to northeast (Dewey et al., 1989; Helman and Mazzoli, 1994; Campan, 1995; Albarello et al., 1995). The largest amount of shortening computed in Tunisia relative to Europe during the last 23 Ma spans 100 to 165 km (Dewey et al., 1989; Campan, 1995). It appears that the amount of N–S Africa–Europe relative motion was five to eight times slower than the eastward migration of the Apenninic arc during the last 23 Ma, i.e. 4–7 mm=year of N–S convergence vs. 30–40 mm=year of eastward migration of the Apenninic arc (Gueguen et al., 1997, and references therein). Recent geodetic data confirm this overall setting (Ward, 1994) and show that the ‘absolute’ plates motion directions of Europe and Africa are northeast oriented (Smith et al., 1994) and not north or northwest directed as usually assumed. The eastward migration of the arc associated with westdirected subduction generated right-lateral transpression along the entire E–W-trending northern African belt and its Sicilian continuation (e.g. Channell et al., 1990), whereas left-lateral transtension has been described along the same trend in the back-arc setting just to the north of the African margin (Doglioni, 1991). Within this geodynamic framework, the western Mediterranean was initiated during the Late Oligocene as the west-directed Apennines–Maghrebides subduction started (Robertson and Grasso, 1995). At this time, the main ‘east’-directed Alpine subduction had reached the continental collision stage leading to the flip of the subduction zone along the back-thrust belt of the Alpine orogen area where remnants of the oceanic Tethys were still present (Doglioni et al., 1998). The new west-directed subduction retreated eastward to its present position beneath the Apennines and Maghrebides. In the hangingwall of the subduction back-arc extension opened irregular troughs as the Provençal, Algerian and Tyrrhenian basins (Réhault et al., 1984; Malinverno and Ryan, 1986; Royden et al., 1987; Doglioni, 1991). Lithospheric swells, a type of giant boudin, were isolated between those basins, such as the Corsica–Sardinia and the Balearic promontory (Gueguen et al., 1997). Magmatism accompanied this evolution with calc-alkaline episodes particularly located on the western margins of the ‘boudins’ and alkaline magmas widespread within the basins (Hernandez et al., 1987; Kastens et al., 1988; Martı́ et al., 1992; and references therein). Even for the last 30 Ma, geodynamic models for the western Mediterranean are still very controversial because it is very difficult to estimate the amount of displacement of continental blocks within the Mediterranean domain. The reason is that the data E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 261 generally used to constrain a plate kinematics model are derived from magnetic anomalies, fracture zones and morphology of the conjugate margins. However, in the western Mediterranean magnetic patterns do not allow easy identification of the anomalies and all the basins developed within or at the edge of an active orogen, such that the conjugate margins are deformed, except the Liguro–Provençal basin. 3. The 25 Ma palaeogeography The Provençal and Tyrrhenian domains were restored using the N120–90º direction of opening given by the transform and transfer faults. In order to constrain the horizontal displacement we applied an area-balancing method to a crustal section (Fig. 1) drawn along the direction of movement (small circle) of our kinematic model and corresponding to the line of major displacement. To draw this section, running from the Gulf of Lions to northern Calabria, we used multichannel seismic lines (ECORS-NW, MS40) and seismic refraction data (Egger et al., 1988; Réhault et al., 1990; Scarascia et al., 1994). The Provençal basin was restored to its end-ofrifting setting (Gueguen, 1995), corresponding to a displacement of 350 km. In order to restore the Tyrrhenian part we assumed an original crustal thickness of 50 km due to the presence of the Alpine orogen as indicated by the presence of Alpine rocks in Calabria and offshore Sardinia and inland Corsica, and a mean width of 200 km of the orogen. With these assumptions the amount of total extension needed in order to restore the Tyrrhenian domain to its pre-rift situation is about 425 km. Pre-existing models (Moussat et al., 1985; Malinverno and Ryan, 1986) proposed a smaller value of 350 km extension, assuming an initial crustal thickness of 30 km, which corresponds to a normal-thickness continental crust without taking into account the presence of the Alpine orogen. In our model, we require a total movement of 775 km to balance the entire section of Fig. 1. Northward in the southern Apennines, Schiattarella et al. (1997) calculated, using a balanced section, shortening of 250 km for the Apenninic units, whereas for the Ligurides units shortening may be estimated as 350 km, giving a total of 550 km. Fig. 1. Balanced cross-section illustrating the evolution of the western Mediterranean during the Neogene and Quaternary (location in Figs. 2 and 5). See text for discussion. The Apenninic subduction retreated eastward since the Late Oligocene–Early Miocene to present times. The back-arc extension first led to ‘lithospheric necking’ of the Provençal basin then it jumped to the east of Sardinia and developed the Tyrrhenian Sea including the Vavilov and Marsili sub-basins. This appears to indicate a discontinuous process of extension in the hangingwall of the west-directed subduction in which large slices of lithosphere are ‘boudinated’ and dragged eastward (after Gueguen et al., 1997). Further north, the CROP03 seismic line across the central Apennines (Barchi et al., 1997) shows that the Alpine belt has been delaminated by east-dipping low-angle normal faults. Along this line shortening is estimated as 200 km. 262 E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 In the Valencia trough and in the North Algerian basin, an estimate of horizontal movement is complicated by the fact that it is not possible to restore an initial crustal thickness even of 30 km. This is probably due to the presence of inherited Mesozoic basins (Gelabert et al., 1992; Roca and Guimerá, 1992). The only data we can use to constrain the horizontal movements in the above area are estimates of shortening in the Tell. The shortening between the palaeo-margins of Kabylie and Africa can be estimated as 200 km (Bouillin, 1979) but considering also the Tell nappes, the displacement must be larger. According to Vila (1980), the amount of shortening may even reach 250 km for the Tortonian phase alone. From our palaeogeographic reconstruction, 300 km of shortening is the maximum possible. In the Gibraltar area, according to plate-kinematics models of the relative motion of Europe and Africa (Dewey et al., 1989; Albarello et al., 1995; Campan, 1995), the amount of shortening since the Early Oligocene (Anomaly 13) must be less than 150 km. This is in good agreement with the fact that the amount of shortening in the Tellian chain doubles from west to east (Vila, 1980). In Late Oligocene time, opening of the Liguro– Provençal basin was already initiated. Fig. 2 shows the palaeogeography at the beginning of the Miocene after the Oligocene extension of the Liguro– Provençal margins, but before oceanization of the basin (Gueguen, 1995). This reconstruction juxtaposes the foot of the continental slope as shown on seismic reflection profiles and fits the margin morphology, considering the Corsica–Sardinia block as almost rigid as constrained by Permian dykes crossing the Straight of Bonifacio between the two islands (Arthaud and Matte, 1977). Such a reconstruction minimizes the problems of the Provençal basin reconstruction and gives a good correlation of the geologic features between the Sardinian block on one side and Iberia and Europe on the other. 4. From 25 Ma to 10 Ma During the 25–10 Ma time period, the Corsica– Sardinia block rotated 60º anticlockwise around a pole located at 42.7ºN and 9.6ºE (Gueguen, 1995). Fig. 3 illustrates a palaeotectonic reconstruction of this time period. During the late Burdigalian, the Calabrian and Peloritan massifs began to separate from the Sardinia block with the opening of the Tyrrhenian area (i.e. Vavilov basin). At this time the Valencia trough was still opening, even if compression was still operating in the Balearic islands. Due to the rotations of the continental blocks, the length of the Apenninic arc increased, leading to the break-up of the arc between the Balearic islands and Sardinia and to the formation of an oceanic domain corresponding to an area of fan-shaped magnetic anomalies that can be observed in an aeromagnetic map of the Algerian basin (Galdeano and Rossignol, 1977). From the Late Oligocene, the North Algerian basin started to open by dislocation of its internal zones. The Kabylian basement is affected by a new transgression marked by deposition of conglomerates and sandstones of the Oligo–Miocene Kabylian unit. Coevally the Numidian trough overrode the African margin. 5. From 10 Ma to 5 Ma The Liguro–Provençal basin, the Valencia trough and the North Algerian basin were almost completely opened at 10 Ma. The Numidian trough was closed and the Kabylian blocks were attached to Africa. This explains why the Tortonian corresponds to a period of major reorganization in the western Mediterranean. In fact, during the opening of the North Algerian basin, coeval closure of the Numidian trough by roll-back of the subduction zone absorbed all of the convergence of Africa with respect to Europe. From the Tortonian, the effects of this convergence were transferred to the North Algerian basin and to North Africa, where a major compressive phase was characterized by large-scale folding and thrusting. The northern arm of the arc (i.e. the Apenninic and Tyrrhenian area) was affected by eastward migration of compression in the eastern margin of the arc and extension followed immediately to the west. The Vavilov basin progressively reached the oceanization stage during the Late Miocene–Early Pliocene, while the Marsili basin started to open (Fig. 4), and Calabria was also affected by extensional tectonics. This jump in the extension process E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 Fig. 2. Early Miocene palaeotectonic reconstruction of the western Mediterranean showing the extensional system (Provençal–Valencia–Alboran), considered as the back-arc basin of the west-directed Apenninic subduction (in black). Note the eastward vergence of both the Apenninic trench and of the back-arc extension. In grey are marked the fronts of the Alpine–Betic orogen which is cross-cut by the zone of back-arc extension. The back-arc basin of the Apenninic subduction fragmented the Alpine–Betic orogen into the segmented basins. Note the distance between the reconstructed Early Miocene arc and its present position (775 km) with respect to the contemporaneous, but smaller north-northwestward motion of Africa relative to Europe (135 km). A–A0 shows location of the section shown in Fig. 1. 263 264 E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 Fig. 3. Most of the western Mediterranean basins had already opened during Tortonian times. Both the trench of the Apennine subduction and related focus of back-arc extension continued to migrate eastwards. E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 Fig. 4. Early Pliocene palaeotectonic reconstruction. The Tyrrhenian basin began to develop oceanic crust in the Vavilov area. The entire system associated with the Apenninic subduction migrated eastward at rates up to 50 mm=year. 265 266 E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 Fig. 5. The western Mediterranean is composed of sub-basins becoming younger from west to east. They developed in the hangingwall of the ‘eastward’ retreating Apenninic subduction, as back-arc basins, during the last 30 Ma. These sub-basins are triangular in shape. A–A0 shows location of the section shown in Fig. 1. E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 was marked by a change in direction of opening from N120º to N140º. This was probably controlled by the fact that the only oceanic domain in the foreland allowing easy subduction roll-back was (and still is) the Ionian Sea. 6. From 5 Ma to present In the Tyrrhenian domain the Vavilov basin was almost completely opened and new oceanic crust began to form in the Marsili basin during the Late Pliocene (Fig. 5). In the southern Apennines, interference of the subduction zone with thicker continental crust of the Apulian platform halted migration of the subduction hinge, whereas in the central and northern Apennines subduction of thin Adriatic oceanic lithosphere allowed continuing roll-back of the hinge. Owing to these different roll-back rates the velocity of the Apenninic slab retreat was split in two ‘sub-arcs’ separated by the Tremiti line (Doglioni et al., 1994). 7. Conclusions An Early Miocene reconstruction of the western Mediterranean (Fig. 2) shows that the Alpine–Betic system had by then reached the continental collision stage, making subduction more difficult. This situation favoured the inversion of the subduction, resulting in initiation of the Apennines–Maghrebides system along the front of the Alpine–Betic backthrust belt which represented a zone of weakness, especially in the area where Tethyan oceanic crust persisted. Roll-back of this west-directed subduction then induced opening of the Provençal–Valencia– Alboran basins, which should be considered as initial back-arc basins related to this subduction, i.e. with both subduction and back-arc basins of the same migration polarity and the same age. The western Mediterranean Late Oligocene–Miocene basins (Alboran, Valençia and Provençal basins) are, in fact, a coherent system of interrelated troughs. For all these basins the extension and the thermal subsidence migrated eastwards progressively towards the Miocene–Pleistocene Algerian and Tyrrhenian basins. All of these troughs represent parts of a 267 back-arc basin system, opening related to eastward roll-back of the west-directed Apenninic subduction zone. This back-arc extension generated a system of lithospheric ‘boudins’, which disrupted the lithosphere in the hangingwall of the subduction zone. The westernmost basins of the Mediterranean developed obliquely with respect to the Alpine–Betic orogen because Late Oligocene–Early Miocene extension nucleated within both the pre-existing Betic cordillera (e.g. Alboran Sea) and in its foreland (Valencia and Provençal troughs). The N40–70º direction of grabens was oblique to the partly coeval N60–80º-trending orogen and showed a structural independence from trends in its orogenic roots. The Apennines–Maghrebides arc migrated eastward during the retreat of the west-directed subduction zone since ca. 30–25 Ma. The greatest migration occurred in Calabria, southern Italy, where the arc moved about 800 km eastwards. N–S compression related to Africa–Europe relative motion deformed the southern arm of the Apennines–Maghrebides subduction system. This relative convergence is estimated as about 150 km and cannot be considered as the mechanism for generating the Apenninic subduction which is much larger and moving in a different direction. This geodynamic setting recalls in some way the west-directed Barbados subduction where the southern arm of the eastward migrating arc was deformed and emplaced northward during Tertiary and Quaternary times by coeval N–S convergence (e.g. Venezuela), owing to clockwise rotation of South America. During Tertiary times Africa rotated anticlockwise relative to Europe (Channell, 1996), while the Apenninic subduction was migrating eastwards at a faster rate. Acknowledgements Discussions with P. Harabaglia, E. Roca, R. Sabadini and F. Sabat were very helpful. The paper benefited from critical reviews by F. Mongelli and J.P. Réhault. The European Community and ASI supported this study (HCM Research Networks, ‘Geodynamic modelling of western Mediterranean’), grant ERBCHRXCT940607. 268 E. Gueguen et al. / Tectonophysics 298 (1998) 259–269 References Albarello, D., Mantovani, E., Babbucci, D., Tamburelli, C., 1995. Africa–Eurasia kinematics: main constraints and uncertainties. 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