2023-2026 – Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento, Spanish Government, Ref: PID2022-139943NB-I00. PI: I. Jiménez-Munt and D. García-Castellanos.
The Western-Central Mediterranean region is characterized by a wide diversity of geodynamic processes in the context of the long-term plate convergence between Africa and Eurasia during the entire Alpine Cycle (Mesozoic–Cenozoic periods). These include pre-orogenic rifting and oceanization, subduction and extinction of the Tethys oceanic lithosphere, counterclockwise rotation of the Adria microplate, back-arc spreading of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and final continental collision and rapid uplift in the Apennines, Dinarides and Alps. The Adria microplate, deformed amid the two major converging plates of Africa and Eurasia, results in a key piece for the reconstruction of this complex tectonic region. The Adriatic microplate, larger than today during the Mesozoic, shrinked due to the development of active orogenic belts along the Apennines to the west, the Alps to the north, the Dinarides-Albanides to the east and Calabria to the south. Therefore, Adria is surrounded by very deformed converging margins involving three plate subductions with different polarity and with Adria acting as both upper plate in the Alps and lower plate in the Apennines and Dinarides. One of the striking aspects of these subducted/delaminated slabs is their conspicuous segmentation at depth, as observed in tomographic studies, separated by lithospheric gaps that have been commonly interpreted as occurring during the subduction processes. This proposal aims specifically to: 1) understand the mechanical response of the Adria microplate during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic; 2) determine the interplay between the lithosphere subduction-delamination and the continental collision during the consumption of oceanic domains surrounding the microplate; and 3) constrain the present-day configuration of the lithospheric slabs beneath Adria and the changes in magmatism, seismicity and topography through time. To solve these purposes, we will integrate numerical modelling with laboratory analyses and geological studies.
Some of the main results:
- Bidirectional mantle delamination of the Adria microplate beneath the northern Apennines and Dinarides orogenic systems. Results from a geophysical-petrological model. more
- Pre-shortening reconstruction of the Adria microplate: Balanced and restored cross-sections through the Southern Apennines–Dinarides (Central Mediterranean Sea). More
- The lithosphere and upper mantle of the Western‐Central Mediterranean region from integrated geophysical‐geochemical modeling. more
- Neogene mantle delamination beneath the Northern Apennines: insights from thermomechanical Modelling. Doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2026.119960
