Neogene patterns of relative plate motion for Africa-Europe: some implications for recent central Mediterranean tectonics

A detailed relative motion picture for the Neogene Africa-Europe plate kinematics is presented. The kinematic reconstruction was carried out using the finite difference solution between the rotation parameters determined for Anomalies 7 to 2 in the Africa-North America-Europe plate motion circuit. The analysis shows a motion of Africa with respect to Europe which is NNE directed during Late Oligocene to Burdigalian times, becoming NNW trending from the Langhian to the early Tortonian; from upper Tortonian times onward, the motion changes to a clear north-west directed convergence. Major Late Neogene tectonic features of the central Mediterranean region can, to a large extent, be explained within the context of the reconstructed major plate motions. Late Tortonian to Recent Africa-Europe slip vectors are compatible with a variety of geological phenomenoa such as north-west directed subduction beneath Calabria, south-east translation of Calabria and extension in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north-west trending slip vectors from thrust earthquakes between Gibraltar and Sicily, and dextral strike-slip across the North African margin.