Paleomagnetic evidence for Cenozoic clockwise rotation of the external Albanides

doi:10.1016/0012-821X(94)00231-M

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Volume 129, Issues 1–4, January 1995, Pages 121-134

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(94)00231-M Get rights and content

Abstract

A paleomagnetic study of 750 samples obtained from 55 late Eocene to middle Pliocene sedimentary sites demonstrates a clockwise rotation of about 45° of the external zones of Albania. This rotation occurred either in two phases of roughly equal amplitude during the early-middle Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene or in a single phase with a clear acceleration of the movement during the Plio-Pleistocene. The good agreement of these results with those from southern Albania and northwestern Greece indicates that a large geographical area is involved in the rotation. The active ‘Aegean’ compressive front thus extends much farther north than hitherto believed and the rotational pattern is not significantly distorted by the tectonic discontinuities recorded by geological studies. The external zones of the Albano-Hellenic Belt appear to have rotated virtually as a single entity from the Peloponnesos to northern Albania over a deep decollement level probably involving the basement itself.

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The evolution of the Aegean extensional domain has been associated with a post-Miocene ∼50∘ clockwise rotation of the western limb of the Hellenic Arc (Kissel et al., 1995; van Hinsbergen et al., 2005). Differential rotations are observed across the Scutari-Pec transverse zone (Fig. 1), separating unrotated Dinarides from rotated Albanides units (Kissel et al., 1995; Speranza et al., 1995). Scientific interpretations of the paleomagnetic results have differently emphasized the respective roles of a wholesale rigid-body rotation of the western limb of the Hellenic Arc (Kissel and Laj, 1988; van Hinsbergen et al., 2005; Brun and Sokoutis, 2010) or the rotations of fault-bounded blocks in an area of distributed continental deformation (McKenzie and Jackson, 1983; Sonder and England, 1989; Hatzfeld et al., 1997; Mattei et al., 2004).
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The change in strike is rather abrupt (Plate 1, and Figs. 12 and 14), occurring across the Skutari-Peć transverse zone located in northern Albania (Cvijić, 1901; Aubouin and Dercourt, 1975; Frashëri et al., 2012; Handy et al., 2019). This abrupt kink coincides with a paleomagnetically well-documented rotation by some 50° clockwise documented for the units in Albania and adjacent Greece; it almost entirely occurred in Neogene time (Speranza et al., 1992 and 1995; Kissel et al., 1995; Kissel and Laj, 1988; van Hinsbergen et al., 2005a). The difference between the paleo-declinations of the Miocene lake sediments with respect to present-day north in the central Dinarides (around 0°; de Leeuw et al., 2012) and the Neogene sediments of similar age in northern Albania (around 35°; Speranza et al., 1995) suggests that this rotation accelerated in latest Miocene to Pliocene times (Speranza et al., 1995; Handy et al., 2019).
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Although the results of this study cannot ultimately differentiate between the single- or the multi-ocean model of closure of the Mesozoic Tethys, they indicate that the mode of emplacement of the EVZ was strikingly different (more accretion-like) with respect to the other Balkan ophiolites (westward obduction). The present position of all geotectonic units in the central Balkan Peninsula is the result of Mesozoic subduction and subsequent rotations of the Adria plate and later compression in the Albanides and Hellenides (Kissel et al., 1995; Karamata, 2006; Schmid et al., 2008). The Vardar Zone sensu lato is a complex suture that mainly consists of ophiolites and various accretionary mélange rocks (Karamata, 2006).
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Paleomagnetic evidence for Cenozoic clockwise rotation of the external Albanides

Abstract

Tectonophysics

Tectonophysics

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Tectonophysics

Phys. Earth Planet. Inter.

Phys. Earth Planet. Inter.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Tectonophysics

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Tectonophysics

Tectonophysics

Des tectoniques superposées et de leur signification par rapport aux modèles géophysiques. L'exemple des Dinarides: paléotectonique, tectonique, tarditectonique, néotectonique

Bull. Soc. Geol. Fr.

Les transversales dinariques, dérivent—elles de paléofailles transformantes?

C.R. Acad. Sci., Ser. D

Etude néotectonique et sismotectonique des Albanides: analyse des déformations et géodynamique du Langhienàl'actuel

Structure, stratigraphy and evolution of the Central Mediterranean

Boll. Geof. Teor. Appl.

Paleomagnetic results for Albania (U. Cretaceous-Eocene) and their tectonic significance in the frame of the Alpine-Mediterranean tectonic evolution