DEFORMATION PATTERN IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN AND BEHAVIOR OF THE AFRICAN ADRIATIC PROMONTORY

The Adriatic platform has been described in the literature both as an Africa promontory, moving in close connection with the main continent and as an independent microplate. This evident incongruity is mainly due to the wide spectrum of kinematic hypotheses proposed on the basis of paleomagnetic data and to the fact that the Adriatic-Africa transition is not marked by any clear decoupling fracture or by any interruption of lithological facies along the marginal belts (Apennines-Maghrebides and Dinarides-Hellenides). In this work it is argued that the counterclockwise rotation of the Adriatic plate, driven by Africa pushing beneath the Calabrian Arc and southern Tyrrhenian, may coherently account for all major Plio-Quatemary events in the central Mediterranean. © 1990.