Neue kinematische Rekonstruktionen der Adriatischen Platte als Schlüssel zum Verständnis von Subduktionsprozessen im westlichen Mittelmeer KAPMED

• Antragstellerinnen / Antragsteller: Professorin Dr. Eline Le Breton; Professor Dr. Mark R. Handy; Professor Dr. Kamil Marek Ustaszewski, Ph.D.
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Paläontologie ; Physik des Erdkörpers
• Förderung: Förderung von 2014 bis 2020
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 263778326

• Erstellungsjahr: 2020

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Our study reveals that the Adriatic plate had an independent motion relative to Africa only recently in Neogene time and of limited amount. This divergence between Adria and Africa was accommodated by rifting along the Sicily Channel, while Adria rotated counter-clockwise of 5 ± 3° relative to Europe. Further back in time, Adria was connected to Africa and deformed internally along sinistral strike-slip faults accommodating Africa-Europe convergence. Our kinematic reconstructions of the Alpine-Mediterranean area, implemented into a global plate circuit, complemented by thermo-mechanical modelling, shed new light on the past extent and opening kinematics of the Piemont-Liguria Ocean. The opening of the Central Atlantic in Jurassic times led to divergence between Europe and Africa and the opening of the Piemont-Liguria Ocean in four stages (stretching and thinning of the continental margin between 200-180 Ma and 180-165 Ma, respectively; mantle exhumation along OCT zones between 165- 154 Ma; oceanic spreading between 154-145 Ma). Spreading was slow to ultra-slow (up to 22 mm/yr), and ceased progressively in Early Cretaceous (145-130 Ma). This led to the formation of a small oceanic domain of maximum 250 km width. The opening of the North Atlantic at 145 Ma led to a period of mostly strike-slip tectonics along this domain. South-directed “alpine” subduction of the PL Ocean initiated at about 84 Ma, at rates of c. 8.6 mm/yr, and progressed from SE to NW till collision of the Adriatic plate with the European proximal margin at about 35 Ma. We highlight that at least 63 % of the subducted lithosphere was highly thinned continental lithosphere and most of Alpine Tethys Ophiolites came from OCT zones, which emphasizes the importance of the distal domain of continental margins in subduction and exhumation processes. In Neogene time, plate convergence exceeded crustal shortening in all orogens surrounding Adria. We attribute this difference to tectonic erosion and crustmantle decoupling of the Adriatic lithosphere. The results of this project provide new insights on the geodynamic evolution of the complex Alpine- Mediterranean area back to Mesozoic time and crucial quantitative constraints for geodynamic modelling of the Alpine Orogeny in 4D which may lead to a better interpretation of seismic tomography models beneath the Alps (ongoing DFG-funded SPP).

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

• 2015. Balancing shortening and extension around the Adriatic Plate to constrain its independent motion and driving forces since Late Cretaceous time. AGU 2015-T13B-2983, 2015 AGU Fall Meeting
  Le Breton E., M.R. Handy and K. Ustaszewski
  
• 2017. Crustmantle decoupling in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides and Hellenides – the next targets of AlpArray? Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 19, EGU2017-18044, EGU General Assembly 2017
  Handy M.R., E. Kissling, W. Spakman, K. Ustaszewski, E. Le Breton and J. Giese
  
• 2017. Does intraplate brittle deformation indicate far-field stress signals? A case study of Central Europe. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 19, EGU2017-4170, EGU General Assembly 2017
  Navabpour, P., J. Kley, E. Le Breton, D.J.J. van Hinsbergen and K. Ustaszewski
  
• 2017. New constraints on Neogene counterclockwise rotation of Adria relative to Europe. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 19, EGU2017- 15437, EGU General Assembly 2017
  Le Breton E., M.R. Handy, G. Molli and K. Ustaszewski
  
• 2017. One microplate – three orogens: alps, Dinarides, Apennines and the role of the Adriatic plate. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 19, EGU2017-16444, EGU General Assembly 2017
  Ustaszewski K., E. Le Breton, P. Balling, M.R. Handy, G. Molli and B. Tomljenović
  
• 2017. Post-20 Ma motion of the Adriatic plate – new constrains from surrounding orogens and implications for crust-mantle decoupling, Tectonics, 36
  Le Breton E., M.R. Handy, G. Molli and K. Ustaszewski
  
• 2019. A global plate model including lithospheric deformation along major rifts and orogens for the last 240 million years. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 21, EGU2019-14273, EGU General Assembly 2019
  Müller R.D., S. Zahirovic, S.E. Williams, J. Cannon, M. Seton, D.J. Bower, M.G. Tetley, C. Heine, E. Le Breton, S. Liu, S.H.J. Russel, T. Yang, J. Leonard and M. Gurnis
  
• 2019. A global plate model including lithospheric deformation along major rifts and orogens since the Triassic. Tectonics, 38
  Müller R.D., S. Zahirovic, S.E. Williams, J. Cannon, M. Seton, D.J. Bower, M.G. Tetley, C. Heine, E. Le Breton, S. Liu, S.H.J. Russel, T. Yang, J. Leonard and M. Gurnis
  
• 2019. How wide was the Liguro-Piemont Ocean? The 14th Emile Argand Conference on Alpine Geological Studies, 4th-6th September 2019, Sion, Switzerland
  Le Breton E., K. Ustaszewski, S. Zahirovic, M. Seton and R.D. Müller
  
• 2019. Next-generation surface kinematic constraints for geodynamic models. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 21, EGU2019-15244-1, EGU General Assembly 2019
  Zahirovic S., R.D. Müller, S.E. Williams, J. Cannon, M. Seton, D.J. Bower, M.G. Tetley, C. Heine, E. Le Breton, S. Liu, S.H.J. Russel, T. Yang, J. Leonard and M. Gurnis
  
• 2019. Plate motion model of Western and Central Mediterranean-Alpine area since 200 Ma. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 21, EGU2019-14720, EGU General Assembly 2019
  Le Breton E., K. Ustaszewski, D.R. Müller, and S.H.J. Russel
  
• 2019. Using geodynamic models to test plate-tectonic scenarios for Alpine mountain building. 2019 Ada Lovelace Workshop on Modelling Mantle and Lithosphere Dynamics, Certosa di Pontignano, Siena Italy
  Kaus B.J.P., Le Breton E.
  
• 2020. Kinematic reconstructions of the Western Mediterranean area since Triassic time: possible scenarios and their implications for the Apennines. EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, EGU2020-11301
  Le Breton E.
  
• 2020. Kinematics and extent of the Liguro-Piemont Ocean. EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, EGU2020-11228
  Le Breton E., S. Brune, K. Ustaszewski, S. Zahirovic, M. Seton and R.D. Müller
  
• 2020. Tectonic units of the Alpine collision zone between Eastern Alps and western Turkey: Gondwana Research, 78, p. 308-374
  Schmid, S. M., Fügenschuh, B., Kounov, A., Maţenco, L., Nievergelt, P., Oberhänsli, R., Pleuger, J., Schefer, S., Schuster, R., Tomljenović, B., Ustaszewski, K., van Hinsbergen, D. J. J.
  
• 2020. Using geodynamic modelling to test plate tectonic scenarios of the Mediterranean-Alpine area. EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, EGU2020-11134
  Kaus B., E. Le Breton, G. Reuber and C. Schuler