Relation between Recent Tectonics and Mesozoic Inherited Structures of the Central-Southern Adria Plate

The analysis of several seismic reflection profiles offshore the Adria plate reveals a complex spatial-temporal distribution of the carbonate platforms, often linked to different conditions of the crustal thicknesses. The "platform sequence", the "platform-to-basin sequence" and the "oceanic sequence" seem to represent the principal paleogeographic domains and are associated with different crustal types which, during the Tertiary age, became the foreland of the southern Apennine/Calabrian Arc and the Dinaric/Hellenic Chain. In this work, we have tried to highlight how these main crustal domains affect recent tectonics in a remarkable way. The migration of the Calabrian Arc and the Hellenic Chain brought about a regional compressive regime, which currently affects the whole crustal thickness of the Adria plate, causing transpression along the main strike-slip systems of the plate, inversion tectonics in the Salento offshore, and underthrusting below the Dinaric front, whereas the external front of the central-southern Apennines does not seem to be active any more.© 2010 - OGS.