Hypothesis on the plate tectonic evolution of the Carpatho-Balkan arcs

We propose a plate-tectonic model for evolution of the Dinaric-Carpathian and Hellenic-Balkan systems since the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous. Initially, an oceanic area lying between the African and European continents was being consumed in north-dipping subduction zones situated close to the European margin. This process gave rise to Lower Cretaceous calc-alkaline magmatism occurring in the Vardar zone, and to Upper Cretaceous/Lower Eocene calc-alkaline and K-alkaline magmatism (Banatitic igneous activity) of the Apuseni-Timok-Srednogora alignment.A back-arc thrust belt (in the meaning of Dickinson) developed behind the Hellenic-Balkan system, while a marginal basin was opened up behind the Dinaric-Carpathian system.In Lower Miocene times an important evolutionary change reversed the subduction polarity in the Dinaric-Carpathian system, causing the closure of the previous marginal basin, and the formation of the Neogene Carpathian arc and the Pannonian and Transylvanian ensialic marginal basins; in the Hellenic-Balkan system, a southward migration of the arc-trench system occurred. This change was almost contemporaneous with complex changes in the western Mediterranean and with the re-arrangement of plate movements in Atlantic, Pacific and Indian areas.