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Nubia-Eurasia kinematics: an alternative interpretation from Mediterranean and North Atlantic evidence

2009; National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology; Volume: 50; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4401/ag-3073

2037-416X

E. Mantovani, Marcello Viti, D. Babbucci, D. Albarello,

Geological and Geochemical Analysis

It is argued that the Plio-Quaternary deformation pattern in the Mediterranean region is compatible with a SSWNNE convergence between Africa (Nubia) and Eurasia and that the significant difference between this kinematics and the one provided by global models (SSE-NNW convergence e.g., the NUVEL-1) may be due to the fact that those models interpret North Atlantic data by adopting an oversimplified two-plate configuration, which cannot account for the occurrence of significant seismotectonic activity inside the presumed Nubia and Eurasia blocks. It is shown that the adoption of a new plate configuration involving the Iberia and Morocco microplates, strongly suggested by geological and seismotectonic evidence, makes it possible to identify a kinematic model compatible within errors with the constraints recognized in the Mediterranean region and with the NUVEL-1 North Atlantic data set. Some considerations are made about why the present-day Nubia-Eurasia kinematic models inferred from geodetic observations are significantly different from long-term models, such as model NUVEL- 1 and the one proposed in this work.