1 Nubia-Eurasia kinematics: an alternative interpretation from Mediterranean and North Atlantic evidence
It is argued that the Plio-Quaternary deformation pattern in the Mediterranean region is compatible with a SSW-NNE 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)...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.563.1981 http://www.earth-prints.org/bitstream/2122/2071/1/Nubia Eurasia_Mantovani.pdf |
| Summary: | It is argued that the Plio-Quaternary deformation pattern in the Mediterranean region is compatible with a SSW-NNE 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 the reason 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. |
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